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Turn any text into 1337 in 5 styles, from readable L337 5p34k to cryptic |_337 5|*3/\|<. Add hacker slang, get a leet username for X, Instagram, or Discord, or paste leet to translate it back into English.
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Last updated: October 5, 2026 · Published: 2026-04-09 · Updated: 2026-10-05
19 characters
Classic 1337
3l173 h4ck3r 5k1ll5
19 characters · 9 digits and symbols
All 5 leetspeak styles
As a username · Classic 1337, with symbols swapped for digits and spaces for underscores
Screen readers read leet as the digits and symbols it is made of, so 4 is read as four. Keep names, links, and important details in plain text.
Leetspeak, or 1337, is a way of spelling words with digits and symbols that look like letters, so "Leet Speak" becomes L337 5p34k. The name comes from elite, and 1337 itself spells leet: 1 for L, 3 for E, 7 for T.
A leetspeak generator does the swapping for you. This one offers five levels of leet, adds slang words like h4x0r and n00b, builds usernames that platforms accept, and decodes leet back into plain English. Everything runs in your browser.
Type your text
All 5 leetspeak styles update as you type. Turn on Hacker slang to swap in words like h4x0r and teh.
Pick a style
Basic and Classic stay readable, Symbols and Extreme ASCII look more cryptic, and Random mix gives a new look with every shuffle.
Copy it, or make a username
Copy one style, all of them as a numbered list, or a ready-made username for X, Instagram, or Discord. Paste leet into the decoder to read it.
Each example is "Leet Speak". The last column shows what the decoder reads back.
| Style | Example | What changes | Characters | Username-safe | Decodes to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Leet Speak | Nothing. | 10 | Yes | — |
| 1. Basic | L33t Sp34k | Swaps only the vowels a, e, i, o for 4, 3, 1, 0. The easiest to read. | 10 | Yes | Leet Speak |
| 2. Classic 1337 | L337 5p34k | Nine letters become digits (4 8 3 6 1 0 5 7 2). Letters and numbers only, so it works in usernames. | 10 | Yes | Leet speak |
| 3. Symbols | |33+ $p3@k | Twelve letters become one keyboard character each, such as @ for a, $ for s, and + for t. | 10 | Symbols are swapped for digits | leet speak |
| 4. Extreme ASCII | |_337 5|*3/\|< | Every letter is drawn with keyboard characters, such as |-| for h and \/\/ for w. Hard to read. | 14 | Symbols are swapped for digits | leet speak |
| 5. Random mix | |_e3+ $p3@k | Each letter randomly keeps its shape or takes a digit, symbol, or ASCII form. Shuffle for a new mix. | 11 | Symbols are swapped for digits | leet speak |
With Hacker slang on, whole words are swapped too: "the elite hacker" becomes teh 31337 h4x0r.
The substitution each style uses for every letter. Letters without a Classic or Symbols form stay as they are.
| Letter | Classic 1337 | Symbols | Extreme ASCII |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 4 | @ | /\ |
| B | 8 | 8 | |3 |
| C | — | ( | ( |
| D | — | — | |) |
| E | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| F | — | — | |= |
| G | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| H | — | # | |-| |
| I | 1 | ! | ! |
| J | — | — | _| |
| K | — | — | |< |
| L | — | | | |_ |
| M | — | — | |\/| |
| N | — | — | |\| |
| O | 0 | 0 | () |
| P | — | — | |* |
| Q | — | — | (_,) |
| R | — | — | |2 |
| S | 5 | $ | 5 |
| T | 7 | + | 7 |
| U | — | — | |_| |
| V | — | — | \/ |
| W | — | — | \/\/ |
| X | — | — | >< |
| Y | — | — | `/ |
| Z | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Leet has no fixed alphabet. Any character that readers can recognize as a letter works, which is why the same letter can have many forms.
Choose Leetspeak to text and paste. Each digit can stand for more than one letter, so the decoder picks the most likely one.
| Digit | Can stand for | Decoder reads |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | O | o |
| 1 | I, L | i or l, from the letters around it |
| 2 | Z, R, S, Q, L | z |
| 3 | E, R | e |
| 4 | A, R | a |
| 5 | S | s |
| 6 | G | g |
| 7 | T, L, R | t |
| 8 | B | b |
| 9 | G, P, Q, R | g |
| Leet | Decoded |
|---|---|
| 3l173 h4x0r | elite hacker |
| n00b | noob |
| b10g | blog |
| fu11 | full |
| Top 10 h4ck5! | Top 10 hacks! |
| |_|83|2 1337 | uber leet |
| C@7L0vr | CatLovr |
| pwn3d | owned |
Leet also has its own vocabulary. The Hacker slang switch swaps these in, and the decoder translates them back.
| Leet | Means | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 1337 | leet | Short for elite, the word the whole language is named after. |
| 31337 | elite | Eleet, the long form of 1337. |
| h4x0r | hacker | Haxor, built with the -xor suffix that turns a verb into a noun. |
| teh | the | Began as a typing error for the, sometimes written t3h. |
| j00 | you | Spells the sound you makes after words ending in t or d. |
| n00b | noob | From newbie, a new or inexperienced player. |
| pwned | owned | A mistyping of owned, since O and P sit side by side on QWERTY. |
| pwn | own | Added to the Official Scrabble Words list in 2015. |
| w00t | woot | An exclamation of joy, Merriam-Webster's 2007 Word of the Year. |
| k3w1 | cool | Reads as kewl, from cool. |
| skillz | skills | The z ending, one of leet's oldest deliberate misspellings. |
| r0xx0rz | rocks | Roxxorz, the -xor suffix again. |
| 5uxx0rz | sucks | Suxxor, the opposite of roxxor, from warez culture. |
| d00d | dude | Dude with zeros for the double o. |
Gamers have long used leet to claim a name that was already taken, swapping a letter for a similar-looking digit. Usernames accept digits but few symbols, so the generator swaps symbols for digits and spaces for underscores.
| Platform | Allowed characters | Length | Rule from |
|---|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) | Letters, numbers, and underscores | Up to 15 | X Help Center |
| Letters, numbers, periods, and underscores | Up to 30 | Instagram sign-up form | |
| Discord | Lowercase a–z, 0–9, underscores, and periods (no two periods in a row) | 2–32 | Discord Support |
Example: "Elite Hacker" in Symbols is 3|!+3 #@(k3r, which no platform accepts as a username. The username version is 3l173_H4ck3r on X and 3l173_h4ck3r on Discord, where usernames are always lowercase. Display names are less strict, so the full Symbols or Extreme version can go there.
Surprisingly well. In "R34D1NG W0RD5 W1TH NUMB3R5" (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2008), readers saw a word such as M4T3R14L flashed too briefly to notice, then recognized MATERIAL almost as fast as after seeing the real word. Letter-like symbols worked just as well as digits. The study used 4 for A, 3 for E, 1 for I, and 5 for S, close to this generator's Classic style.
Readability drops as more letters change, so Basic and Classic suit names and captions, while Extreme ASCII works best for a word or two.
Swapping letters for digits makes a password look complex, but password-cracking tools already try those swaps. Hashcat, for example, ships rule files named leetspeak.rule that turn john into j0hn automatically. Length does more for a password than leet, so use a long passphrase or a password manager.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1980s | Leet grows up on bulletin board systems, where elite status unlocks file folders, games, and special chat rooms. The hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow is credited with coining the term in its text files. |
| 2007 | Visitors to Merriam-Webster's website vote w00t the Word of the Year. The dictionary notes it first became popular in competitive online gaming forums as part of l33t speak. |
| 2008 | Manuel Perea, Jon Andoni Duñabeitia, and Manuel Carreiras publish "R34D1NG W0RD5 W1TH NUMB3R5", showing that readers process leet words almost like the real word. |
| 2015 | Scrabble adds pwn, leet for own, to its Official Scrabble Words list. |
| 2023 | Discord moves to new usernames limited to lowercase a–z, 0–9, underscores, and periods, which leaves room for digit-based leet but not symbols. |
One theory holds that leet was invented to get past filters that bulletin board and IRC operators used to block talk of hacking and cracking. Algospeak, coded words used to slip past social media moderation, carries on the same idea.
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