HesapHanem

Lat/Lon to Grid Words Converter

Enter coordinates to get a three-word grid code.

How it is calculated

This is a teaching demo of a coordinate-to-words code, not a real geocoding service. Latitude must be between −90 and 90 and longitude between −180 and 180 (decimal degrees). Each is shifted to be non-negative and snapped to a 0.01° grid: latCell = round((lat + 90) × 100) and lonCell = round((lon + 180) × 100). They are packed into one number, code = latCell × 36001 + lonCell. The lowest three bytes of that number, each 0 to 255, pick three words from a built-in list of 256 four-letter words: word1.word2.word3. A cell is about 1.1 km tall, and because only 24 of the code's bits are used, many different cells share the same three words.

Worked example

Take 41.0082, 28.9784. latCell = round((41.0082 + 90) × 100) = 13,101 and lonCell = round((28.9784 + 180) × 100) = 20,898. The code is 13,101 × 36,001 + 20,898 = 471,669,999. In bytes this is 239, 28 and 29 (lowest byte first), which index the words lost, boss and both, giving lost.boss.both. Moving the point by a few metres to 41.0084, 28.9786 stays in the same cell and gives the same words.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Treating the output as a what3words address. The words are unrelated to that service and will not match any real what3words location.
  • Expecting a unique code per spot. Only 256 words are used and the code is cut to 24 bits, so different places can produce the same three words.
  • Swapping latitude and longitude. Latitude is limited to ±90, so entering a longitude such as 120 in the latitude field returns nothing.
  • Expecting metre-level precision. Coordinates are rounded to 0.01° (about 1.1 km), so two nearby points usually give identical words.

About this calculator

Turning coordinates into memorable words instead of a long string of digits is a well-known idea in geocoding — the best-known commercial version divides the globe into a grid of small squares, each permanently labeled with a unique three-word combination from a fixed dictionary.

This tool is a demonstration of that concept: it takes a latitude and longitude, maps them onto a simplified fixed grid, and deterministically produces a three-word code from an embedded wordlist. It’s built for learning and illustration purposes — showing how coordinate-to-word encoding works conceptually — and is explicitly not the what3words service or compatible with it, so its codes shouldn’t be used for real-world navigation or location sharing.

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Comments (1)

  • Editorial team

    Because the words come from packed cell numbers, neighbouring cells tend to share the last two words. Moving Istanbul's 28.9784 east to 28.9884 changes lost.boss.both to love.boss.both, only the first word. That is a quirk of this demo scheme, not a feature of any real service, so never rely on similar-looking words meaning nearby places. Try your own town and a spot 1 km away: do the words look close or unrelated?

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