Leet

Leet (sometimes written as "1337" or "l33t"), also known as eleet or leet-speak, is another alphabet for the English language that is used mostly on the internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. For example, leet spellings of the word leet include 1337 and l33t; eleet may be spelled 31337 or 3l33t. It is used on the internet in forums, chat rooms and online games.

Leet is mostly used for English, but can also be used with other languages including French, Spanish and German.

Leet-speak

Leet-speak is a mixture of words (mostly computer-related jargon) spelled incorrectly intentionally*, usually coming from typographical errors (e.g. the becomes t3h). The words of Leet-speak are usually put together to create a dialect (small language). This dialect is used in some places for funniness. l33tspeak uses numbers, ASCII symbols, and diacritics together to make symbols that look like Latin letters. For example, the name "David" would translate in 1337 as |)/-\\/1|) or more commonly as D4v1d.

1337 Alphabet Examples

Most of the time it is only the vowels that are changed and then usually only they are replaced by numbers; therefore, it is unusual to see someone use the leet alphabet to spell out a whole word (although there are common exceptions, namely 1337).

These are only examples; these are not mandatory for Leet-speak, which is not officially defined anywhere, like most slangs.

• A: ∆,4, /-\, /_\, @, /\, Д, а
• B: 8, |3, 13, |}, |:, |8, 18, 6, |B, |8, lo, |o, j3, ß, в, ь
• C: <, {, [, (, ©, ¢, с
• D: |), |}, |], |>
• E: 3, £, ₤, €, е
• F: 7, |=, ph, |#, |", ƒ
• G: 9,[, -, [+, 6, C-
• H: #, 4, |-|, [-], {-}, }-{, }{, |=|, [=], {=}, /-/, (-), )-(, :-:, I+I, н
• I: 1, |, !, 9
• J: √,_|, _/, _7, 9, _), _], _}
• K: |<, 1<, l<, |{, l{
• L: |_, |, 1, ][
• M: 44, |\/|, ^^, /\/\, /X\, []\/][, []V[], ][\\//][, (V), //., .\\, N\, м
• N: |\|, /\/, /V, ][\\][, И, и, п
• O: 0, (), [], {}, <>, Ø, oh, Θ, о, ө
• P: |o, |O, |>, |*, |°, |D, /o, []D, |7, р
• Q: O_, 9, (,), 0, kw
• R: |2, 12, .-, |^, l2, Я, ®
• S: 5, $, §
• T: 7, +, 7`, '|', `|`, ~|~, -|-, '][', т
• U: |_|, \_\, /_/, \_/, (_), [_], {_}
• V: \/
• W: \/\/, (/\), \^/, |/\|, \X/, \\', '//, VV, \_|_/, \\//\\//, Ш, 2u, \V/
• X: ×,%, *, ><, }{, )(, Ж
• Y: `/, ¥, \|/, Ч, ү, у
• Z: 2, 7_, >_, (/)

Letters for numbers

• 0 = O or space
• 1 = I or L or 7 or | or !
• 2 = Z
• 3 = E or e or m or w or ω or ∈ or ε or ∩∩
• 4 = h or A or y
• 5 = S
• 6 = b or G
• 7 = T or K
• 8 = B or X
• 9 = g or J or P
• 10 = I and O or L and O or | and O
• 11 = N or ||
• 12 = R
• 0 = C or O or D or Θ or o

٢٤٨١ for: real

٩٥٨٦ for: goat

١٤٥ for: leo

٤٩٥ for: ego

٤٧٨ for: eva

٤٧٤ for: eve

٤٢٤ for: eye

٨٩٤ for: age

٩٤١ for: gel

٤٧٢٥ for: euro

٤٧٤٢ for: ever

٤٧١١ for: evil

٩٥٨١ for: goal

٤٧٥١٧٤ for: evolve

١٥٥٦ for: loot

٨٤٢٥ for: aero

٦١٤٢ for: tier

٧١٧٥ for: vivo

٢٥٢٨١ for: total

٧١٦٨١ for: vital

٢٤٩٨١ for: regal

٧١٦٨١ for: Vital

٩٨٦٨٢ for: Qatar

Intentional misspelling*

When people write in leet, they spell some words wrong all the time. They might do this to laugh at new people who do not type with their keyboards well, or might be making fun of English's pronunciation and/or spelling .

• bai or bi --- bye
• nd --- and
• d00d --- dude
• dog8 --- dog
• form --- from
• gurl or grill --- girl
• guise --- guys
• h4x or h4x0rz --- hacks (see vocabulary entry hax)
• hai --- hi
• j00 --- you
• kewl --- cool
• kk - ok
• liek --- like
• lopl --- lol
• smat --- smart
• m8 --- mate
• m2 --- me too
• mastah --- master
• max0r --- max. or maximum
• OMG --- oh my god (variations such as OMGG are also common) OMD ~ (Oh my Dance)
• own or pwn --- see vocabulary entry own
• PMGZ--- OMG with a p and a z
• ZPMG--- OMG originally rushed. Typo P instead of O and hitting Z when shift is pressed.
• OLO --- LOL (LOL stands for laugh out loud)
• ph34 --- fear
• pl0x --- please
• powwah --- power
• pr0n --- porn
• t3h --- the (see vocabulary entry: "teh")
• w8 --- wait
• wen --- when
• wat/whut/wot/wut --- what
• winnar --- winner
• u --- you
• r --- are
• y --- why
• yass/yus/yos --- yes
• ya/yea --- yeah
• cya --- see you
• 10\/3u --- loveu
• wamen --- women
• what3v --- whatever

Leet vocabulary

• leet, l33t, l337, 1337, 31337 --- elite
• l@ym --- laughing at your momma
• ftw, 4tw --- for the win,when something is successful or desirable.
• hax, h4x --- hacks
• haxor, hax0r, h4x0r, haxzor --- "hacker", cheater (note: also often spelled with two x's)
• joo, j00 --- you
• meh, m3h --- can mean me or oh well. Used to show undecidedness, unworriedness or often as a sign that the user has nothing to say
• newbie, noob, n00b, n00b13, nooblet, nub, newb, nubbins --- new, newcomer or new (player), used more often as an insult. Thought to originate from new boy, new-blood, or new in business.
• boon or b00n --- more derogatory term than noob with the same insult intended.
• own, ownage, 0wn, pwn, pwnage --- own means to be superior or better than someone, the past tense is "pwnt", "pwnd" or "pwned"
• phear, ph34r, ph33r --- fear
• rox0r, r0xorz --- rock, to be amazing or excellent
• c3n50red --- censored
• teh, t3h --- "the"
• wuut/wuu2 - Basically saying 'What are you up to'. People do choose to say this quite often
• woot, w00t --- Thought to originate from We Own the Other Team. It is used to show celebration or happiness.
• ZoMG!!!11! --- "Oh My God"
• P00nd- Another use of pwn, not to be confused with pr0n.
• Pr0n- Porn (pornography)
• QQ - cry/complain (eyes with tears) or the shortcut to close Warcraft II
• L2<blank> - Learn to <blank>. Often used as L2P (learn to play).
• O RLY - "oh, really?" often responded to by YARLY. Also can be accompanied by an ASCII art image of an owl.
• YARLY - "yeah, really!" often used as response to ORLY
• NOWAI - "no way!" often used as a response to YARLY
• pew pew - shooting, often used in the phrase more pew pew less QQ, meaning, more shooting less crying/complaining
• GG - good game, this can also be used in a condenscending manner.
• BG - bad game, in World of Warcraft this also means Battleground.
• noobcannon, N00BC4NN0N - Noobtube, a weapon in a video game that is either over-powered, or requires little skill to use.
• PWN4G3 N008 - Pwnage noob.
• Stronk - Strong.
• GL - Good Luck, So giving someone good luck before a game
• HF - Have Fun, telling people to enjoy the game
• n1 - Nice One
• ns - Nice Shot; complimenting someone, usually on their aim in a FPS (First-person shooter) game.
• bm - Bad Manners; usually used to call someone out after a show of bad sportsmanship.

Wrong grammar*

When a person writes in English the person must follow English rules, but most of the time people who write in leet do not use these rules. When they write in leet they try to write it in a special way, so that it is very different from English.

"l33t is teh suck!" (meaning: 'leet sucks') shows that in leet people can use their own rules, and not use the English rules. A lot of times adjectives (describing words) are turned into nouns. The leet word "teh" (the) is also often placed in front of verbs, as in "I teh pwnd j00" (meaning I the owned you, meaning: I beat you badly). another example might be I 4m t3h pwnage!!!!11!!11 (meaning I am the best!)

Leet speakers may also speak normally but without the vowels. Fr xmpl nmbr 1 u cn tll it wrks.= For example, number one you can tell it works.

Pronunciation

Because some words are too long for use in games they have been written how they sound. Here's a quick guide:

• pwn --- own, pawn or powne
• x or xx (as in haxxorz or haxorz) --- an x followed by a z. In this example, hackzorz would be pronunciation
• R0fz --- rolling on floor screaming, pronounced rawfs

Variations

There are some that are uber 1337...using nothing but symbols and numbers to represent their letters... Example as follows;

1 4/\/\ 7|-|3 |<33/o3|2 ()|" 7|-|3 \_//\/1\/3|253 (I am the keeper of the universe)

Other websites

• Noslang.com, internet slang translator
• Albinoblacksheep.com, another leet to English translator

*Much of the intentional misspelling said to be part of 1337 is actually more properly part of chatspeak, a completely different thing.