Hi bug-gnu-emacs, Given the following mode definitions, I was expecting ~/a to have one keyword, ~/b to have two, and ~/c to have three: (define-derived-mode ~/a fundamental-mode (font-lock-add-keywords nil `(("a" 0 'font-lock-keyword-face)))) (define-derived-mode ~/b ~/a (font-lock-add-keywords nil `(("b" 0 'font-lock-builtin-face)))) (define-derived-mode ~/c ~/b (font-lock-add-keywords nil `(("c" 0 'font-lock-constant-face)))) This assumption is wrong, as can be easily verified by opening a new buffer, inserting "abc", and switching between ~/a, ~/b, ~/c. What's going on? Is this a font-lock bug, a doc bug, or a user-got-confused issue? Clément.