In emails and text messages, people sometimes put the number 8 inside a word because it sounds like “ate,” “eat,” or “ait.” So great becomes gr8, later becomes l8r, hate becomes h8, wait becomes w8. It is playful, very informal spelling — fine with friends, never in school work or a formal letter. Though actually this was much more common when phone messages were short and each letter cost money; a lot of younger people now find it a bit 2000s, like an old joke. The digit is standing in for a sound, not for the number eight.

簡訊／聊天室用語：用數字 8 代替 ate、eat、ait 的音（如 gr8＝great）。不是正式寫法。