Can You Speak Leet?

"N00b" or "n008" is one of the most easily recognized leetspeak words. It's short for "newbie." "Kook" and "grommet" are from the world of surfing, and "script kiddie" is a talentless hacker who piggybacks on others' work.

"Leetspeak" was elite because only those in the know spoke it. Or, usually, wrote it.

The more literal spelling is the second one, in which the 3 stands for the first E. But the more common spelling is 1337, which knocks off the first letter, leading to the birth of the term "leet."

While leetspeak certainly would confuse newcomers, its primary role was to allow hackers to talk about restricted topics by using words that wouldn't get flagged, and thus get their posts deleted by bulletin board administrators. You still see this today when people misspell swearwords to avoid flagging.

The point to leetspeak is to disguise words from outsiders while still being understood by the insiders. Anything that gets the job done is fair game.

This raises an interesting idea: What if all the English majors and other Luddites started using Elizabethan as their own elite-speak to freeze programmers and hackers out? After years of being called "Noob!" by 16-year-olds, wouldn't it be satisfying to say "goose-livered lackbeard!" back?

"POS" stands for "parent over shoulder" and came from preteens and teens of the 1990s, using their home computers (which back then was usually the only one in the house). Don't mock them, though: These kids were doing the same thing hackers were in leetspeak -- using a code that got messages past authority figures.

The two diagonals make up the vertical strokes of an M or N (though they're not, strictly speaking, vertical). You have to imagine the other diagonal slashes that would join them.

This one's fairly easy to parse. Then again, "dude" isn't a word you'd usually have to hide from prying eyes.

This one's fairly easy to see. And satisfying to those of us who think a "W" looks more like a "double-V" than a "double-U."

Nope, saying "LOL" isn't very leet. Meaning "laughing out loud," it was quickly and almost universally adopted online.

As the first and last letters indicate, it's "hacker." In general, an "-X0R" ending means someone who does something, like "-er" in plain English.

Both the numeral 6 and the numeral 5 are close to the shape of a G. But the 6 is a little closer.

The "z" replaces the more common "s." For example, "foods" becomes "foodz."

Literally, it's "food." But the idea of "your stuff" comes from the expression "I'm in your refrigerator, eating your foodz!" This brag meant that the superior hacker could touch anything of yours at any time. It's largely been replaced by "All your base are belong to us."

This is a simple rendering of the exclamation "Woot!" "Woo hoo!" might be rendered "VV00 /-/00!"

Confused? The bridge here is the word "teh" for "the," based on a frequent typo. While "teh" has been adopted by meme-makers, leetspeakers went a little further, making it "t3h."

This creates the leet word "pwn." It can be adapted into various nouns and verbs ("pwnage" and "pwns").

"Warez" just lops off the first part of "software" and then makes the second part plural. However, it can be used as a singular.

Yup, it's basically what it looks like. Also can be abbreviated as "BC."

Don't be confused by the similarity to "pwn" for "own" -- it's porn, only slightly altered. Helpful advice of the day: On the Deep Web, child pornography links are often marked with the simple letters "CP," so if you see this, don't click any further.

An early example of this was the word "phreaking" for "freaking." It was hacking the telephone system.

This can also be spelled as the more recognizable "joo." The j represents a somewhat slushy "y" sound, the way it sometimes sounds when spoken by non-English speakers.

"Sploitz" is short for "exploits." While in everyday English, exploits are often daring or skillful feats, in hacker terminology the term refers almost solely to vulnerabilities that can be "exploited."

This is easier to read when written "m4d." But it's always an adjective meaning "awesome," usually in "m4d sx1llz." (Note to beginners: Don't brag online about your "m4d sx1llz." It's going to mark you as a n00b).

While the "-x0r" suffix started out meaning a person who does a specific thing, nowadays "-x0rz" is a simple verb ending. Hence "r0xx0rz" for "rocks."

This term simply substitutes an ampersand for the word "and." This substitution appears in other words as well.

Again, the "-x0rz" ending makes a present tense verb. Occasionally you'll see "sux" in graffiti and very casual writing, but leetspeakers like their spellings a little more c0mplic8d.

This term, loosely adapted from "lol," was made famous by "LulzSec" or Lulz Security, the hacker group. You've probably seen their mascot, a rich toff with a monocle.

This word uses several substitutions; in fact, only the "p" is left from the original word. An easier spelling would be "sp34k." In general, the more substitutions, the more the writer is shielding himself/herself from being understood by outsiders.

It's "World of Warcraft," and it's not just any role-playing game. It's an MMORPG - a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

We're not sure how often "internal" comes up in hacker discussions, but this would be a leet way to write it. It's probably more useful that "3t3r//4l," which would be "eternal."

This would be leetspeak for "mouse." However, if you're still using a computer mouse, you're not very leet. Sorry.

This is a way of spelling "Deep Web," which some people call the "Dark Web." That's a misnomer, though: the Deep Web is just everything that's not indexed by the World Wide Web, and the majority of it is used for legal and ethical purposes.

"$3cr3t" is an important term, because secrecy has been a fundamental part of leetspeak from the beginning. We doubt egrets come up very often in leetspeak conversations.