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Using 'Free' could also be a nod to the fact that there are a lot of very similar sounding words in the What3Words system [1]. The What3Words word list is 40,0

Using 'Free' could also be a nod to the fact that there are a lot of very similar sounding words in the What3Words system [1]. The What3Words word list is 40,000 words long. It is important that words in this list cannot be confused, otherwise they may be communicated incorrectly. For example band/banned, bare/bear, beat/beet are easily confused. A quick inspection of their word list finds the following words that sound very, very similar to one another: equivalence equivalents incidence incidents incite insight incompetence incompetents independence independents innocence innocents instance instants intense intents lightening lightning ordinance ordnance [1] https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/ https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-su...

richij 5y ago
> incompetence incompetents Ironic ionic ;-)
mbirth 5y ago
IIRC it’s designed so that similar sounding words are so far apart from each other that it’s clear that you’ve got something wrong. Meaning the w3w addresses are meant to be used with a vague idea of where you want to go.
- eddyg 5y ago
  There are far too many word “collisions” that result in nearby (but not close enough to find someone) locations. e.g.: https://twitter.com/matthewwilkes/status/1388772924627333121 https://twitter.com/matthewwilkes/status/1388772924627333121 https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1387911525873197057 https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1387911525873197057
- cybergibbons 5y ago
  Yeah, that's not true. https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/ https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-su...
  - mbirth 5y ago
    From their FAQs[1]: > The overwhelming proportion of similar-sounding 3 word combinations will be so far apart that an error is obvious, However, it continues like this: > but there will still be cases where potentially confusable word combinations are nearby. Our Autosuggest feature actively intercepts possible errors or confusions and highlights other possibilities to the user, helping to identify what might need to be checked. So they rely on auto-suggest and people trying all suggested alternatives. [1] https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/3577589-how-are-the-words-assigned https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/3577589-how-are-t...

richij 5y ago

> incompetence incompetents Ironic ionic ;-)

mbirth 5y ago

IIRC it’s designed so that similar sounding words are so far apart from each other that it’s clear that you’ve got something wrong. Meaning the w3w addresses are meant to be used with a vague idea of where you want to go.

eddyg 5y ago
There are far too many word “collisions” that result in nearby (but not close enough to find someone) locations. e.g.: https://twitter.com/matthewwilkes/status/1388772924627333121 https://twitter.com/matthewwilkes/status/1388772924627333121 https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1387911525873197057 https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1387911525873197057
cybergibbons 5y ago
Yeah, that's not true. https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/ https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-su...
- mbirth 5y ago
  From their FAQs[1]: > The overwhelming proportion of similar-sounding 3 word combinations will be so far apart that an error is obvious, However, it continues like this: > but there will still be cases where potentially confusable word combinations are nearby. Our Autosuggest feature actively intercepts possible errors or confusions and highlights other possibilities to the user, helping to identify what might need to be checked. So they rely on auto-suggest and people trying all suggested alternatives. [1] https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/3577589-how-are-the-words-assigned https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/3577589-how-are-t...