Leet – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Leet (often Eleet, leetspeak, leetspeek, l33t, 31337, or 1337; from “�lite”) is a cipher, or novel form of English spelling. It is characterized by the use of non-alphabet characters to stand for letters bearing a superficial resemblance, and by a number of quasi-standard spelling changes such as the substitution of “z” for final “s” and “x” for “(c)ks.” Leet is traditionally used on the Internet and other online communities, such as bulletin board systems, sometimes to complement Internet slang or “chatspeak.” Leet is used by hackers, crackers, script kiddies, gamers, Animators, and even lamers. Although leet is not popular amongst some hackers, who think that it is immature and prefer their prose to reflect the cleanliness of syntax of their code (although consistent leetspeak could arguably do so), it is nonetheless a cultural phenomenon well-known amongst hackers and many other internet users, and is used by many computer professionals because of this.