With BIP39 recovery phrase (also called mnemonic phrase), user can backup and recover Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency wallets without the need to use complicated private keys. Instead wallet can by recovered using seed phrase made of natural language words. BIP39 comes from Bitcoin Improvement Proposal no. This was to simplify process of creating recovery seeds for your wallet and restoring it.
With the introduction of BIP39, the whole process of generating and accessing bitcoin and other cryptocurrency wallets was simplified. OFFICIAL BIP39 WORD LIST (MNEMONIC) – IN ENGLISH (VERIFIED) What is BIP39?
