what3words
what3words is the geocoding system that maps every 3m×3m square of the Earth's surface to three English words, operated commercially by What3Words Ltd.
Purpose
It pinpoints locations with word triples that are easy to remember and say aloud, outperforming coordinates for human readability.
Mechanism
Latitude and longitude are quantized onto a 3m grid and mapped by a deterministic algorithm onto three words from a preselected vocabulary (about 40,000 words), encoded as word1.word2.word3. Decoding reverses back to the grid cell's center coordinates.
Use cases
- Delivery and navigation positioning
- Emergency response location reporting
- Passing addresses by voice and phone