Leetspeak

//ˈliːt.spiːk// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A form of chatspeak characterized most strongly by its alphanumeric substitutions. Internet, uncountable

    "well, after all i am a student of languages... which lets me peek into sociology now and then. i haven't studied the 'leet guys very much, but it seems to me that as they all understand their form of "communication", the main purpose (ie separating themselves as a group from the mainstream) is successful. especially as it is almost impossible to understand leetspeak at first."

Example

More examples

"well, after all i am a student of languages... which lets me peek into sociology now and then. i haven't studied the 'leet guys very much, but it seems to me that as they all understand their form of "communication", the main purpose (ie separating themselves as a group from the mainstream) is successful. especially as it is almost impossible to understand leetspeak at first."

Etymology

From leet + -speak; the former element is from elite, respelled according to leetspeak conventions.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.