Initializers are called when the forth kernel is started, to do some initialization stuff. Pro: If code needs initialization you can keep this in place with the code and don't need to patch the kernel itself to do so. There are 2 types of initializers. "Normal" and "Late" initializers. Since initializers are only called during startup, they don't need a name. Definition: initializer ( xt -- ) late-initializer ( xt -- ) Examples: :noname ; initializer :noname some-base initializations ; late-initializer Late initializers are run after all ordinary initializers have been executed.