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.
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.
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 [source?].
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
noobcannon, N00BC4NN0N - Noobtube, a weapon in a video game that is either over-powered, or requires little skill to use.
PWN4G3 N008 - Pwnage noob.
27r0n6 - 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 1337-2P34K...using nothing but symbols and numbers to represent their letters...
Example as follows;