5.2.7 Hword Directive

The .hword expr1[, ..., exprn] directive evaluates and assembles one or more expressions into 2-byte numbers, stored into consecutive addresses in little-endian format. This directive is a synonym for .short. This directive forces alignment to 2 bytes (that is, it adds padding if necessary) to its natural alignment on all devices. Note that the .2byte, .4byte, and .8byte directives do not force alignment.