Leet / 1337 — Hacker Speak
Letters swapped for lookalike numbers and symbols (elite → leet → 1337), born on 1980s Bulletin Board Systems to dodge filters and spread through 1990s gaming. The ancestor of today’s algospeak.
18 words
An exclamation of triumph or joy, spelled with two zeros: w00t.
Leetspeak for 'you', often paired with taunts like 'j00 got pwned'.
Leetspeak for 'sucks' — to be bad — the counterpart to 'roxxor'.
A deliberate misspelling of 'the' that became an ironic intensifier, as in 'teh best'.
Mature content — open to view.
To utterly defeat or dominate; a typo of 'own' that became its own word.
An intensifier prefix meaning 'super' or 'ultra', borrowed from German 'uber' (over/above).
Leetspeak respelling of 'hacker', often written h4x0r, used admiringly or mockingly.
Algospeak euphemism for 'kill' or 'die', coined to dodge social-media moderation filters.
Pirated, cracked software distributed illegally, a cornerstone term of old BBS and scene culture.
Clipped, scene-style form of 'exploit' — a bug or trick abused for unintended advantage.
A jokey respelling of 'cool', signalling playful or ironic approval online.
Clipped form of 'elite' meaning highly skilled, and the name of the numbers-for-letters writing style.
Leetspeak respelling of 'fear', as in the taunt 'phear my 1337 skillz'.
To overwhelm an enemy with sheer numbers rather than skill, from StarCraft's Zerg race.
Leetspeak for 'rocks' — to be excellent — using the '-xor' suffix, as in 'j00 r0xx0r'.
A phone-system hacker; the 1970s subculture whose 'ph' spelling seeded later leetspeak.
The number-spelling of 'leet' (elite) and the name of the whole letter-for-numeral substitution alphabet.