Is there a better, more specific, generally recognized word or phrase that would refer to the “100” part of “100 West Jones Street”, or the “1414” part of “1414-B 17th Street NE”, or the “325” part of “325 South 203rd Street Apt. 19”?
Or do I just refer to it as “the number part” and hope no one is stupid enough to think that includes the street name if it’s a numbered street, or the apartment if it’s a numbered apartment?
“House number”? (Though perhaps not if it refers to a building which is not a house).
My electric company calls it a house number, and is quite explicit about differentiating it from an apartment number.
Maybe “street number”. You can say “street number” or “house number”, but most people won’t treat the terms with that degree of precision, and in casual conversation are likely to attach the street name / apartment designators as well. What is the context in which you need to make the distinction?
This is strictly a regional thing, I’m sure, but the old timers locally call them “fire numbers”. This came from an imposition of numbers on houses that never had any before, never needed any before, but the fire department was worried that a fire engine driver might not know that Bill Ploor’s house was the third on the right after the big tree like everyone else knew. Modern society and all that. Even addressing something to Wayne Schartner, RR3, used to be sufficient, since the postman knew where everyone lived, even summer residents and temporary guests. Who needs numbers?
We’ve had to renumber some neighborhoods when it was discovered that the town chairman, who traditionally handed out new numbers by guesswork, failed to account for lots between lots and ran out of numbers when new construction went up. Nobody wanted to have an address with a “A” appended or even “1/2”.
Numeric.
The US Post Office refers to it as the “Primary Number” in its address verification process.
See pages 11 to 14 in this PDF on the USPS site:
http://www.ribbs.usps.gov/files/AEC/AEC_AECII_UG.PDF
But my guess is that unless you’re talking to other people like me who have to deal with this type of process, no one else will know what you mean when you say “primary number”.
My dad, who was a USPS letter carrier for 20 plus years always called it the “house number” or “building number”. FWIW.
I deal with Geographic Information Systems for my work, and we call them “house numbers”.
Ed
In my observation, UK practice is to call them “house numbers”, regardless of whether the address is a house or some other building.
OK so there isn’t such a word or phrase. Those that would be aren’t widely enough known to be useful in this context.