Hexspeak

Article summary

Hexspeak is a novelty form of variant English spelling using the hexadecimal digits. Created by programmers as memorable magic numbers, hexspeak words can serve as a clear and unique identifier with which to mark memory or data. Hexadecimal notation represents numbers using the 16 digits 0123456789ABCDEF . Using only the letters ABCDEF it is possible to spell several words. Further words can be made by treating some of the decimal numbers as letters – the digit " 0 " can represent the letter "O", and " 1 " can represent the letters "I" or "L". Less commonly, " 5 " can represent "S", " 7 " represent "T", " 12 " represent "R" and " 6 " or " 9 " can represent "G" or "g", respectively. Numbers such as 2 , 4 or 8 can be used in a manner similar to leet or rebuses; e.g. the word "defecate" can be expressed either as DEFECA7E or DEFEC8 .

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