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
.