# Substituting letters with numbers - what's it called? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2010, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858 "2010-03-26T10:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/1 "2010-03-26T10:07:52Z")
I see numbers in place of letters to form words (example: a number plate that reads “CYA L8R” to mean “see you later”) Is there a word to describe either the result (i.e, “CYA L8R”), or the act? ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/2 "2010-03-26T10:11:44Z")
l33t sp33k? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/3 "2010-03-26T10:15:45Z")
Leetspeak, textspeak/txtspk, or The Decline of Western Civilisation. Free choice, one of three. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/4 "2010-03-26T10:17:23Z")
Thanks for the quick answer! (I think Sign of the Decline of Western Civilisation is good) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/5 "2010-03-26T11:13:37Z")
I don’t have an answer to the OP, but I do think the answers provided don’t stand up. This manner of alternate spelling is, at the very least, as old as personalized license plates- thus, it significantly predates the l33t sp33k or textspeak phenomena. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/6 "2010-03-26T11:17:04Z")
Bumper Stumpers? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/7 "2010-03-26T11:57:08Z")
The Arabic Chat Alphabet (an artifact of the ASCII internet age) uses these a lot for Arabic letters that don’t have equivalent Roman letters: ء=2 ع=3 ط=6 ح=7 ص=9 using the same shape-similarity principle as in 1337. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/8 "2010-03-26T12:15:07Z")
Isn’t this essentially a rebus? 78, Derleth ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/9 "2010-03-26T20:42:30Z")
[Online etymology](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=rebus) dates rebus to 1605. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/substituting-letters-with-numbers-whats-it-called/533858/10 "2010-03-26T21:24:13Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Isn’t this essentially a rebus? > > 78, Derleth Of course. Upon founding the Journal of Lucky Beer Bottle Cap Studies, we specifically included numericals as an independent and primary branch of our pursuit. Several of our scholars have gone on to specialize _only_ in numericals, and might correct you for referring to what they do in such a general way, but they would never deny their debt to rebus studies as their entry to Rabelaisian representation.