Address has two main meanings:

1. The specific location where someone lives or where a building stands. Your address includes your street name, house number, city, and state. When you mail a letter, you write the recipient's address on the envelope so it reaches the right person. A business's address tells customers where to find it. Before GPS, people relied on addresses and maps to navigate cities and find unfamiliar places.
2. To speak directly to someone or to deal with a problem. When a principal addresses the school at an assembly, she's speaking to everyone gathered. When a scientist addresses a difficult question in her research, she's tackling it head-on. You might address a concern with your teacher by explaining what's bothering you. A good leader addresses problems instead of ignoring them, and a thoughtful student addresses the main point of an essay question rather than dancing around it.

These meanings connect through the idea of directing something to a specific target: just as a mailed package goes to a particular address, your words or efforts go directly toward a specific person or problem.