[PeterisP]

It's less about difference between words and numbers for encoding information and about the fact that what3words have chosen a very, very bad way of reliably encoding information in words. With their set of words there is an extreme risk of error and miscommunication, searching for a solution makes sense but their particular solution is not it.

There's a lot of research on how to choose words to ensure reliability of communication and reduce risk of misunderstandings, for example, the criteria used for Aviation Phonetic Alphabet - and what3words fails to take all that into account.

You don't want separate things that are pronounced nearly the same, what3words fails in this regard as it contains many pairs like wants/once, secretary/secretory, ordinance/ordnance.

You'd want a person that can reconfirm that word multiple to be certain that they've got that right, but what3words includes singular and plural wordforms (e.g. leader/leaders) which has caused miscommunication even when the responder has understood that they've got the right concept for the word or when the person who recites the three words from memory mistakenly thinks they've memorized it right.

You'd want to ensure that the words are limited to a set of sounds that are clearly pronouncable and understandable by non-native speakers of different backgrounds, what3words does not even attempt that.

In short, the particular system is poorly designed and fundamentally flawed because of that.