What Three Words

The postal system: you live on a street that has numbered houses on it. Maybe you live in an apartment with numbered rooms. What is so special about this? Continue to read to find out.


In the vast majority of the world, there is a system of numbers paired with names. This system goes back to ancient times, making it somewhat archaic and outdated. Wouldn't it be great if there was some sort of universal postal system?

Well a company has done just that.

What Three Words has made a new, modernized system of addressing. Instead of having to find out what state someone lives in if they give you their address, What Three Words has a simpler idea. What they have done is make a grid of three meter by three meter squares across the whole world. Each of these squares is designated with three words.

The exact location of the center of the Eiffel Tower. Source

Since there is not a single universal language around the world, What Three Words used English, since it is the most widely spoken. The words chosen for locations on land are translatable into most other languages. The words chosen for oceans, however, are usually more obscure.

What is the benefit of this? Well, lets say you order something that will be delivered. If you plan to be home at the time, you can set the address to the three words for your front door. If you plan to not be home or want the package delivered by drone, then you might want to set it to your back door so it won't be noticed by other people. Maybe you need to tell someone where to meet you. You could simply tell them the three words of the square you will be in or the closest door to where you will be, and they could enter it into their gps and then show up exactly where you want them to be.