1337

This article is about the language. If you meant the compliment, try 1337 (adjective)

Leet (also spelled as L337, l33t, and (most commonly) 1337) is a language made by replacing letters with numbers or symbols. Even though leet is a language, it does not have its own words, very much specific grammar, and most things languages have, and is mostly created by changing English letters into these symbols.

Leet supposedly originated inthe 1980s.

Leet as a Cipher
Leet as we know it was used originally by people who developed malware and/or hacked computers. The variability of leet made it very challenging to decipher if emails or IMs were 'captured' by a corporation such as IBM. Hackers (or H4x0rz) were experts in this enigmatic language.

Leet as a Language
Gamers caught on to leet in a big way after the rise of online games. Of course, the hackers had moved to the games and with them came leet. Acronyms such as LOL and ROFL came from the creative minds of these internet zombies, and 'soft leet' or 'chatsp33k' was born. 'Middle leet' came as a merger between the two languages, allowing for number substitutions (numb3r 5ub5717u710z) and the suffixes '-x0r' and '-zorz' became very popular.

Grammar Structure in Leet
Leet can have many different grammar styles, including misspellings, using substitutions for letters by numbers, substitutions with other letters (including combining vowels from two to one), mixing up letters/numbers, etcetera. Leet can also use various incorrect grammar styles.

Examples of Leet

 * English: "Hello friend!"
 * Hard Leet: "|-|3|| |=.-13/l/l)!"
 * Middle Leet: "H3ll0 pHr3nD!"
 * Soft Leet (or Chatspeak): "Hey!" or "Yo!" (the same as verbal English)