Leet Facts for Kids

Wikipedia comes from the word "elite," which means "better than everyone else". It can be written in leet.

Leet (sometimes written as "1337" or "l33t"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, 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 a lot 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.

Leetspeak
Images for kids
See also

Leetspeak

Leetspeak 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 leetspeak 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, in the name "David" would translate in 13375|>34|< as |)/-\\/1|).

1337 Alphabet Examples

Note: 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). Please note as these are only examples; these are not mandatory for leetspeak, which is not officially defined anywhere, like most slangs.

A: 4, /-\, /_\, @, /\
B: 8,|3, 13, |}, |:, |8, 18, 6, |B
C: <, {, [, (
D:|), |}, |]
E: 3
F: |=, ph, |#, |"
G: [, -, [+, 6
H: 4, |-|, [-], {-}, |=|, [=], {=}
I: 1, |
J: _|, _/, _7, _)
K: |<, 1<
L: |_, |, 1
M: 44, |\/|, ^^, /\/\, /X\, []\/][, []V[], ][\\//][, //., .\\, N\
N: |\|, /\/, /V, ][\\][
O: 0,, [], {}
P: |o, |O, |>, |*, |°, |D, /o
Q: O_, 9, (,),
R: |2, 12, .-, |^
S: 5, $, §
T: 7, +, 7`, '|'
U: |_|, \_\, /_/, \_/, (_)
V: \/
W: \/\/, (/\), \^/, |/\|, \X/, \\', '//
X: %, *, ><, }{, )(
Y: `/, ¥
Z: 2, 7_, >_

Numbers for letters

1 --- L, I (I is more often shown as |, and sometimes as ][)
2 --- R, Z (not common)
3 --- E
4 --- A, H
5 --- S
6 --- b, G (not common)
7 --- T, L
8 --- B
9 --- g, q
0 --- O (occasionally shown as ())

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 write words with their keyboards well, or might just be making fun of English's pronunciation or spelling.

bai --- bye
ceak --- cake ~ this isn't right.
nd --- and
d00d --- dude
form --- from
guise --- guys
h4x or h4x0rz --- hacks (see vocabulary entry hax)
hai --- hi
j00 --- you
kewl --- cool
liek --- like
m8 --- mate
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
OLO --- LOL (LOL stands for laugh out loud)
ph34 --- fear
pl0x --- please
powwah --- power
t3h --- the (see vocabulary entry: "teh")
wen --- when
wat/whut/wut --- what
winnar --- winner
u --- you
r --- are
y --- why
yass/yus --- yes

Leet vocabulary

leet, l33t, 1337, 31337 --- elite
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.
own, ownage, 0wn, pwn, pwnage --- own means to be superior or better than someone, the past tense is "pwnt"
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"
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
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

Images for kids

A "31337 H4X0R" laptop sticker, along with a Kevin Mitnick sticker

Leet facts for kids

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