Online slang and alternative orthography
Leet
(or "
1337
"), also known as
eleet
or
leetspeak
, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the
Internet
. It often uses character replacements in ways that play on the similarity of their
glyphs
via
reflection
or other resemblance. Additionally, it modifies certain words on the basis of a system of
suffixes
and alternative meanings. There are many
dialects
or
linguistic varieties
in different
online communities
.
The term
"leet" is derived from the word
elite
, used as an adjective to describe skill or accomplishment, especially in the fields of
online gaming
and
computer hacking
. The leet lexicon includes spellings of the word as
1337
or
leet
.
History
[
edit
]
Leet originated within
bulletin board systems
(BBS) in the 1980s,
[1]
[2]
where having "elite" status on a BBS allowed a user access to file folders, games, and special chat rooms. The
Cult of the Dead Cow
hacker collective has been credited with the original coining of the term, in their text-files of that era.
[3]
One theory is that it was developed to defeat
text filters
created by BBS or
Internet Relay Chat
system operators
for message boards to discourage the discussion of forbidden topics, like
cracking
and
hacking
.
[1]
Creative misspellings and ASCII-art-derived words were also a way to attempt to indicate one was knowledgeable about the culture of computer users.
Once reserved for
hackers
, crackers, and
script kiddies
, leet later entered the mainstream.
[1]
It is now also used to mock
newbies
, also known colloquially as n00bs, or newcomers, on websites, or in gaming communities.
[4]
Some consider
emoticons
and
ASCII art
, like smiley faces, to be leet, while others maintain that leet consists of only symbolic word encryption. More obscure forms of leet, involving the use of symbol combinations and almost no letters or numbers, continue to be used for its original purpose of encrypted communication. It is also sometimes used as a scripting language. Variants of leet have been used to evade censorship for many years; for instance "@$$" (ass) and "$#!+" (shit) are frequently seen to make a word appear censored to the untrained eye but obvious to a person familiar with leet. This enables coders and programmers especially to circumvent filters and speak about topics that would usually get banned. "Hacker" would end up as "H4x0r", for example.
[5]
Leet symbols, especially the number 1337, are
Internet memes
that have spilled over into some culture. Signs that show the numbers "1337" are popular motifs for pictures and are shared widely across the Internet.
[6]
Algospeak
[
edit
]
Algospeak
shares conceptual similarities with leet, albeit with its primary purpose to circumvent algorithmic
censorship online
, "algospeak" deriving from
algo
of
algorithm
and
speak
. These are
euphemisms
that aim to evade
automated online moderation techniques
, especially
those that are considered unfair
or hindering
free speech
.
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
One prominent example is using the term "unalive" as opposed to the verb "kill" or even "suicide". Other examples include using "restarted" or "regarded" instead of "retarded" and "seggs" in place of "sex". These phrases are easily understandable to humans, providing either the same general meaning, pronunciation, or shape of the original word. It is furthermore often employed as a more contemporary alternative to leet. The approach has gained more popularity in 2023 and 2024 due to the
rise in conflict between Israel and Gaza
with the topic's contentious nature on the Internet, especially on
Meta
and
TikTok
platforms.
[12]
[13]
Orthography
[
edit
]
One of the hallmarks of leet is its unique approach to
orthography
, using substitutions of other letters, or indeed of characters other than letters, to represent letters in a word.
[14]
[15]
For more casual use of leet, the primary strategy is to use quasi-
homoglyphs
, symbols that closely resemble (to varying degrees) the letters for which they stand.
The choice of symbol is not fixed: anything the reader can make sense of is valid in leet-speak. Sometimes,
a gamer
would work around a nickname being already taken (and maybe abandoned as well) by replacing a letter with a similar-looking digit.
- However, leet is also seen in situations where the
argot
(e.g. secret language) characteristics of the system are required, either to exclude newbies or outsiders in general, i.e., anything that the
average
reader
cannot
make sense of is valid; a valid reader should themselves try to make sense, if deserving of the underlying message.
- Mild leet can be used to mess with
frequency analysis
"as is".
Another use for leet orthographic substitutions is the creation of paraphrased passwords.
[1]
Limitations imposed by websites on password length (usually no more than 36) and the characters permitted (e.g. alphanumeric and symbols)
[16]
require less extensive forms when used in this application.
Some examples of leet include:
- B1ff
.
- n00b
-- a term for "noob", the stereotypical
newbie
.
- The
l33t
programming language.
- "E5C4P3"
: stylized cover of
Journey
's
Escape
album.
- k3w1
deciphers as "kewl" (which is derived from "cool").
- The web-comics
Megatokyo
and
Homestuck
, which contain characters who speak variations of leet.
[17]
[18]
- The digit "5" in
Deadmau5
nickname.
- Upside-down "1337" (with a bar under "1") also reads as "LEET" (example on the photo).
- "DEF 4L7" plates are used by Defalt, a hacker from the
Watch Dogs
videogame (the first in the series).
- VA-11 HALL-A
reads as modified "
Valhalla
" in leet.
- "1 (4/\/"7 |_|/\/[)3|2574/\/[) '/0|_||2 \/\/|2171/\/9.17’5 (0/\/|=|_|51/\/9" is heavily leet-styled "I can’t understand your writing. It’s confusing".
- Sometimes, a word can be typed in leet with digits only:
- Spelling given names in Leet in a way the output would reference to something is also possible.
- Say, girl name "Marisa" can be spelled as /\/\AR15/\ - with a reference to the
AR-15
platform.
- Alternatively, an abbreviation can be leet-ified into a valid
hexadecimal color code
- "614D05" is a valid color HEX-code, referencing to
GLaDOS
;
- "572355" is a dark purple color, coming from "STRESS" word;
- "748452" is a mild green color, derived from "TABASQ" (stilyzed "
tabasco
").
However, leetspeak should not be confused with
SMS-speak
, characterized by using "4" as "for", "2" as "to", "b&" as "ban'd" (e.g. "banned"), "gr8 b8, m8, appreci8, no h8" as "great bait, mate, appreciate, no hate", and so on.
Table of leet-speak substitutes for normal letters
[
edit
]
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
F
|
G
|
H
|
I
|
J
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
O
|
P
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
U
|
V
|
W
|
X
|
Y
|
Z
|
4
/\
@
/-\
^
(L
Д
|
I3
8
13
|3
ß
!3
(3
/3
)3
|-]
j3
|
[
¢
<
(
ⓒ
|
)
|)
(|
[)
I>
|>
?
T)
I7
cl
|}
|]
|
3
&
£
€
[-
|=-
|
|=
?
|#
ph
/=
v
|
6
&
(_+
9
C-
gee
(?,
[,
{,
<-
(.
|
#
/-/
\-\ [-]
]-[
)-(
(-)
:-:
|~|
|-|
]~[
}{
!-!
1-1
\-/
I+I
?
|
1
|
][
!
eye
3y3
|
,_|
_|
._|
._]
_]
,_]
]
|
>|
|<
1<
|c
|(
7<
|
1
7
2
£
|_
|
|
/\/\
/V\
[V]
|\/|
^^
<\/>
{V}
(v)
(V)
|\|\
]\/[
nn
11
|
^/
|\|
/\/
[\]
<\>
{\}
/V
^
?
И
|
0
()
oh
[]
p
<>
Ø
|
|*
|o
|
º
?
|^
|>
|"
9
[]D
|
°
|7
|
(_,)
()_
2
0_
<|
&
9
¶
?
?
|
I2
9
|`
|~
|?
/2
|^
lz
7
2
12
®
[z
Я
.-
|2
|-
3
4
|
5
$
z
§
ehs
es
2
|
7
+
-|-
']['
†
≪|≫
~|~
|
(_)
|_|
v
L|
?
|
\/
|/
\|
|
\/\/
vv
\N
'//
\\'
\^/
\/\/
(n)
\V/
\X/
\|/
\_|_/
\_:_/
uu
2u
\\//\\//
?
\
ω
|
><
}{
ecks
×
?
}{
)(
][
|
j
`/
\|/
¥
\//
`|?
|
2
7_
-/_
%
>_
s
~/_
-\_
-|_
|
Morphology
[
edit
]
Text rendered in leet is often characterized by distinctive, recurring forms.
- -xor
suffix
- The meaning of this suffix is parallel with the English
-er
and
-or
suffixes (seen in
hacker
and
lesser
)
[2]
in that it derives
agent nouns
from a verb
stem
. It is realized in two different forms:
-xor
and
-zor
,
and
, respectively. For example, the first may be seen in the word
hax(x)or
(
H4x0r
in leet)
and the second in
pwnzor
. Additionally, this
nominalization
may also be
inflected
with all of the suffixes of regular
English verbs
. The letter 'o' is often replaced with the numeral 0.
- -age
suffix
- Derivation of a noun from a verb stem is possible by attaching
-age
to the base form of any verb. Attested derivations are
pwnage
,
skillage
, and
speakage
. However, leet provides exceptions; the word
leetage
is acceptable, referring to actively being
leet
.
[19]
These nouns are often used with a form of "to be" rather than "to have," e.g., "that was pwnage" rather than "he has pwnage". Either is a more emphatic way of expressing the simpler "he pwns," but the former implies that the person is
embodying
the trait rather than merely possessing it.
- -ness
suffix
- Derivation of a noun from an adjective stem is done by attaching
-ness
to any adjective. This is entirely the same as the English form, except it is used much more often in Leet. Nouns such as
lulzness
and
leetness
are derivations using this suffix.
- Words ending in
-ed
- When forming a past participle ending in
-ed
, the Leet user may replace the
-e
with an apostrophe, as was common in
poetry
of previous centuries, (e.g. "pwned" becomes "pwn'd"). Sometimes, the apostrophe is removed as well (e.g. "pwned" becomes "pwnd"). The word ending may also be substituted by
-t
(e.g.
pwned
becomes
pwnt
).
[20]
- Use of the
-&
suffix
- Words ending in
-and
,
-anned
,
-ant
, or a similar sound can sometimes be spelled with an
ampersand
(
&
) to express the ending sound (e.g. "This is the
s&box
", "I'm sorry, you've been b&", "&hill/&farm"). It is most commonly used with the word
banned
. An alternative form of "B&" is "B7", as the ampersand is with the "7" key on the standard US keyboard. It is often seen in the abbreviation "IBB7" (in before banned), which indicates that the poster believes that a previous poster will soon be banned from the site, channel, or board on which they are posting.
Grammar
[
edit
]
Leet can be pronounced as a single syllable,
/?liːt/
, rhyming with
eat,
by way of
apheresis
of the initial vowel of "elite". It may also be pronounced as two syllables,
/??liːt/
. Like
hacker slang
, leet enjoys a looser grammar than standard English.
[4]
The loose grammar, just like loose spelling, encodes some level of emphasis, ironic or otherwise. A reader must rely more on intuitive
parsing
of leet to determine the meaning of a sentence rather than the actual sentence structure. In particular, speakers of leet are fond of
verbing
nouns, turning verbs into nouns (and back again) as forms of emphasis, e.g. "Austin rocks" is weaker than "Austin roxxorz" (note spelling), which is weaker than "Au5t1N is t3h r0xx0rz" (note grammar), which is weaker than something like "0MFG D00D /\U571N 15 T3H l_l83Я 1337 Я0XX0ЯZ" (
OMG
, dude, Austin is the
uber
-elite rocks-er!). In essence, all of these mean "Austin rocks," not necessarily the other options. Added words and misspellings add to the speaker's enjoyment. Leet, like hacker slang, employs analogy in construction of new words. For example, if
haxored
is the past tense of the verb "to hack" (hack → haxor → haxored), then
winzored
would be easily understood to be the past tense conjugation of "to win," even if the reader had not seen that particular word before.
Leet has its own colloquialisms, many of which originated as jokes based on common typing errors, habits of new computer users, or knowledge of
cyberculture
and history.
[21]
Leet is not solely based upon one language or character set. Greek, Russian, and other languages have leet forms, and leet in one language may use characters from another where they are available. As such, while it may be referred to as a "
cipher
", a "dialect", or a "language", leet does not fit squarely into any of these categories. The term
leet
itself is often written
31337
, or
1337
, and many other variations. After the meaning of these became widely familiar,
10100111001
came to be used in its place, because it is the
binary
form of
1337
decimal, making it more of a puzzle to interpret. An increasingly common characteristic of leet is the changing of grammatical usage so as to be deliberately incorrect. The widespread popularity of deliberate misspelling is similar to the cult following of the "
All your base are belong to us
" phrase. Indeed, the online and computer communities have been international from their inception, so spellings and phrases typical of non-native speakers are quite common.
Vocabulary
[
edit
]
Many words originally derived from leet have now become part of modern
Internet slang
, such as "
pwned
".
[1]
The original driving forces of new vocabulary in leet were common misspellings and typing errors such as "
teh
" (generally considered lolspeak), and intentional misspellings,
[22]
especially the "z" at the end of words ("skillz").
[1]
Another prominent example of a surviving leet expression is
w00t
, an exclamation of joy.
[2]
w00t is sometimes used as a
backronym
for "We owned the other team."
New words (or corruptions thereof) may arise from a need to make one's username unique. As any given Internet service reaches more people, the number of names available to a given user is drastically reduced. While many users may wish to have the username "CatLover," for example, in many cases it is only possible for one user to have the moniker. As such, degradations of the name may evolve, such as "C@7L0vr." As the leet cipher is highly dynamic, there is a wider possibility for multiple users to share the "same" name, through combinations of spelling and transliterations.
Additionally,
leet
?the word itself?can be found in the
screen-names
and
gamertags
of many Internet and video games. Use of the term in such a manner announces a high level of skill, though such an announcement may be seen as baseless
hubris
.
[23]
[
more detail needed
]
Terminology and common misspellings
[
edit
]
Warez
(nominally
) is a plural shortening of "software", typically referring to cracked and redistributed software.
[23]
Phreaking
refers to the hacking of telephone systems and other non-Internet equipment.
[1]
Teh
originated as a typographical error of "the", and is sometimes spelled
t3h
.
[1]
[24]
j00
takes the place of "you",
[2]
originating from the
affricate
sound that occurs in place of the
palatal approximant
,
/j/
, when
you
follows a word ending in an
alveolar
plosive
consonant, such as
/t/
or
/d/
. Also, from German, is
uber
, which means "over" or "above"; it usually appears as a prefix attached to adjectives, and is frequently written without the
umlaut
over the
u
.
[25]
Haxor and suxxor (suxorz)
[
edit
]
Haxor
, and derivations thereof, is leet for "hacker",
[26]
and it is one of the most commonplace examples of the use of the
-xor
suffix.
Suxxor
(pronounced suck-zor) is a derogatory term which originated in
warez
culture and is currently
[
when?
]
used in multi-user environments such as multiplayer video games and
instant messaging
; it, like
haxor
, is one of the early leet words to use the
-xor
suffix.
Suxxor
is a modified version of "sucks" (the phrase "to suck"), and the meaning is the same as the English slang.
Suxxor
can be mistaken with
Succer/Succker
if used in the wrong context. Its negative definition essentially makes it the opposite of
roxxor
, and both can be used as a verb or a noun. The letters
ck
are often replaced with the Greek Χ (
chi
) in other words as well.
n00b
[
edit
]
Within leet, the term
n00b
, and derivations thereof, is used extensively. The word means and derives from
newbie
(as in new and inexperienced or uninformed),
[22]
[25]
[27]
and is used as a means of segregating them as less than the "elite," or even "normal," members of a group.
Owned and pwned
[
edit
]
Owned
and
pwned
(generally pronounced "poned"
[28]
[p?o??nd]) both refer to the domination of a player in a video game or argument (rather than just a win), or the successful hacking of a website or computer.
[29]
[30]
[31]
[1]
[25]
[32]
It is a slang term derived from the verb
own
, meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. As is a common characteristic of leet, the terms have also been adapted into noun and adjective forms,
[25]
ownage
and
pwnage
, which can refer to the situation of
pwning
or to the superiority of its subject (e.g., "He is a very good player. He is pwnage.").
The term was created accidentally by the misspelling of "own" due to the keyboard proximity of the "O" and "P" keys. It implies domination or humiliation of a rival,
[33]
used primarily in the
Internet
-based
video game culture
to taunt an opponent who has just been soundly defeated (e.g., "You just got pwned!").
[34]
In 2015
Scrabble
added pwn to their Official Scrabble Words list.
[35]
Pr0n
[
edit
]
Pr0n
is
slang
for
pornography
.
[1]
This is a deliberately inaccurate spelling/pronunciation for
porn
,
[27]
where a zero is often used to replace the letter O. It is sometimes used in legitimate communications (such as email discussion groups,
Usenet
, chat rooms, and Internet web pages) to circumvent language and
content filters
, which may reject messages as offensive or
spam
. The word also helps prevent
search engines
from associating commercial sites with pornography, which might result in unwelcome traffic.
[
citation needed
]
Pr0n
is also sometimes spelled backwards (n0rp) to further obscure the meaning to potentially uninformed readers. It can also refer to
ASCII art
depicting pornographic images, or to photos of the internals of consumer and industrial hardware.
Prawn
, a spoof of the misspelling, has started to come into use, as well; in
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
, a pornographer films his movies on "Prawn Island". Conversely, in the
RPG
Kingdom of Loathing
,
prawn
, referring to a kind of
crustacean
, is spelled
pr0n
, leading to the creation of food items such as "pr0n chow mein".
Also see
porm
.
See also
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Mitchell.
- ^
a
b
c
d
An Explanation of l33t Speak.
- ^
Mello, John P. (February 2, 2015).
"Google Expands Bug Bounty Program"
.
E-Commerce Times
.
- ^
a
b
Rome.
- ^
"A guide to leetspeak"
.
IONOS Digitalguide
. 17 November 2021
. Retrieved
2021-12-17
.
- ^
Huh, Ben (March 12, 2014).
"10 classic memes that owned the Internet"
.
CNN
. Retrieved
April 23,
2013
.
- ^
Lorenz, Taylor (8 April 2022).
"Internet 'algospeak' is changing our language in real time, from 'nip nops' to 'le dollar bean'
"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
"What is 'algospeak'? Inside the newest version of linguistic subterfuge"
. 13 April 2023
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
"
'Mascara,' 'Unalive,' 'Corn': What Common Social Media Algospeak Words Actually Mean"
.
Forbes
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
"From Camping to Cheese Pizza, 'Algospeak' is Taking over Social Media"
.
Forbes
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
Klug, Daniel; Steen, Ella; Yurechko, Kathryn (2022).
"How Algorithm Awareness Impacts Algospeak Use on TikTok"
.
Companion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022
. pp. 234?237.
doi
:
10.1145/3543873.3587355
.
ISBN
9781450394192
.
S2CID
258377709
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
Nix, Naomi (20 October 2023).
"Pro-Palestinian creators use secret spellings, code words to evade social media algorithms"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
"How pro-Palestinians are using 'Algospeak' to dodge social media scrutiny and disseminate hateful rhetoric"
.
Fox News
. 23 October 2023
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
Sterling, 70.
- ^
Blashki & Nichol, 80.
- ^
"Username and Password Guidelines"
.
help.pearsoncmg.com
. Retrieved
2019-12-10
.
- ^
Gallagher, Fred; Caston, Rodney.
"
"MegaTokyo - [9] Speak L33t?"
"
.
MegaTokyo
. Retrieved
2024-01-31
.
- ^
Hussie, Andrew.
"==>"
.
Homestuck
. Retrieved
2024-01-31
.
- ^
Blashki & Nichol, 79.
- ^
LeBlanc, 33.
- ^
Blashki & Nichol, 81.
- ^
a
b
Blashki & Nichol, 83.
- ^
a
b
Computer Hope Dictionary.
- ^
LeBlanc, 34-35.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Van de Velde & Meuleman.
- ^
LeBlanc, 30; 32.
- ^
a
b
The Acronym Finder.
- ^
Merriam-Webster: What Does 'Pwn' Mean? And how do you say it?
- ^
Pichlmair, Martin.
Pwned ? 10 Tales of Appropriation in Video Games
(PDF)
.
- ^
Computer Slang
(PDF)
. December 9, 2008. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on December 9, 2008.
- ^
Ludlow, Peter; Wallace, Mark (2007).
The Second Life Herald
. MIT Press. p.
53
.
ISBN
978-0-262-12294-8
.
- ^
LeBlanc, 32-33.
- ^
Naone, Erica (November 2008). "The Flaw at the Heart of the Internet".
Technology Review
. Vol. 111, no. 6. pp. 62?67.
- ^
Peckham, Aaron (2007).
Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined
. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 230.
ISBN
978-0-7407-6875-0
.
- ^
Chappell, Bill (21 May 2015).
"Go Forth And Pwn For Shizzle, Word List Guardians Tell Scrabble Players"
.
NPR
. Retrieved
2020-07-05
.
References
[
edit
]
- "The Acronym Finder"
. Mountain Data Systems, LLC
. Retrieved
2007-04-11
.
[
inline citation needed
]
- "An Explanation of l33t Speak"
.
h2g2
. BBC. 2002-08-16. Archived from
the original
on 2011-09-06
. Retrieved
2007-03-29
.
- Blashki, Katherine; Nichol, Sophie (2005).
"Game Geek's Goss: Linguistic Creativity In Young Males Within An Online University Forum"
(PDF)
.
Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society
.
3
(2): 77?86.
- "Computer Hope Dictionary - Game definitions"
. Computer Hope
. Retrieved
2007-04-02
.
[
inline citation needed
]
- "The Free Dictionary -- Acronyms"
.
The Free Dictionary
. Farlex, Inc
. Retrieved
2007-04-11
.
[
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]
Further reading
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External links
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Look up
leet
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.