parsing a line into stem

[willy jensen]

Right, I must remember never to answer before my 2nd cup of coffee

[Pedro]

re: "The part I was missing (And didn't know existed) was WORD"

In the statement that I think you refer to, WORD is being used as an arbitrary variable name rather than as a keyword. And I dislike the use of a function name ( WORD() ) as a variable name ( WORD ). Rexx allows it, but it could be confusing for the new reader.