Editing Forth (programming language) (section)

=== “Hello, World!” ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="forth">
 : HELLO  ( -- )  CR ." Hello, World!" ;
</syntaxhighlight>
 HELLO &lt;cr&gt;
 Hello, World!

The word <code>CR</code> (Carriage Return) causes the output following <code>CR</code> 
to be displayed on a new line. The parsing word <code>."</code> (dot-quote) reads a double-quote delimited string and appends code to the current definition so that the parsed string will be displayed upon execution. The space character separating the word <code>."</code> from the string <code>Hello, World!</code> is not included as part of the string. It is needed so that the parser recognizes <code>."</code> as a Forth word.

A standard Forth system is also an interpreter, and the same output can be obtained by typing the following code fragment into the Forth console:
<syntaxhighlight lang="forth">
 CR .( Hello, World!)
</syntaxhighlight>
<code>.(</code> (dot-paren) is an immediate word that parses a parenthesis-delimited string and displays it. As with the word <code>."</code> the space character separating <code>.(</code> from <code>Hello, World!</code> is not part of the string.

The word <code>CR</code> comes before the text to print. By convention, the Forth interpreter does not start output on a new line. Also by convention, the interpreter waits for input at the end of the previous line, after an <code>ok</code> prompt. There is no implied "flush-buffer" action in Forth's <code>CR</code>, as sometimes is in other programming languages.