Dispatch vs. Post: What's the Difference?
By Harlon Moss & Aimie Carlson || Updated on May 29, 2024
Dispatch refers to sending off something quickly or efficiently, while post involves sending mail or sharing information publicly, especially online.
Key Differences
Dispatch generally refers to the act of sending someone or something to a specific destination quickly and efficiently. It is commonly used in contexts such as emergency services, where a dispatcher sends police, fire, or medical personnel to a location. Dispatch can also refer to the sending of goods or communications swiftly to ensure timely delivery. On the other hand, post refers to the act of sending mail through a postal system or publishing information publicly, especially on the internet. Posting involves placing a letter in the mail for delivery or sharing content online, such as a blog post or social media update.
In professional settings, dispatch is often associated with logistics and coordination. For example, a company might dispatch a delivery truck to transport goods to customers. This term emphasizes the prompt and organized sending of resources or personnel. Conversely, post is used more broadly in both personal and professional contexts to indicate the sending of letters or parcels through the postal service, as well as sharing information publicly. When you post a letter, you rely on postal services to deliver it. When you post online, you share information with a wide audience via digital platforms.
Dispatch is characterized by its urgency and efficiency, often involving real-time coordination. It is crucial in emergency management, where every second counts, and in business operations requiring timely delivery of goods. In contrast, post does not inherently imply urgency; it can be used for routine communication or sharing updates. Posting a letter may take several days for delivery, and posting online can be done at any time for informational purposes.
While dispatch is commonly associated with speed and immediate action, post is more about the method of delivery or publication. Dispatch focuses on the act of sending quickly, whereas post focuses on the process of sending through a system or sharing information publicly. Both terms involve the transfer of items or information but in different contexts and with varying implications for speed and method.
Comparison Chart
Definition
Sending something quickly and efficiently
Sending mail or sharing information publicly
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Context
Logistics, emergency services, coordination
Postal services, online publishing
Emphasis
Urgency and efficiency
Method of delivery or publication
Common Usage
Business, emergency response
Everyday communication, social media
Implications
Immediate action, real-time coordination
Routine communication, informational sharing
Dispatch and Post Definitions
Dispatch
To send off promptly.
The manager dispatched a team to resolve the issue immediately.
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Post
To send mail through the postal system.
She posted the letter yesterday; it should arrive tomorrow.
Dispatch
To send goods or services to a destination quickly.
The company dispatched the order within 24 hours.
Post
A piece of mail sent through the postal service.
I received a post from my friend in France.
Dispatch
The act of sending off personnel for a specific task.
The dispatch of emergency responders saved many lives.
Post
A public message or announcement.
The company posted a job opening on its website.
Dispatch
To deal with a task efficiently and promptly.
She dispatched all her assignments before the deadline.
Post
A long piece of wood or other material set upright into the ground to serve as a marker or support.
Dispatch
An official report or message sent quickly.
The foreign correspondent sent a dispatch from the war zone.
Post
A support for a beam in the framework of a building.
Dispatch
To relegate to a specific destination or send on specific business.
Post
A terminal of a battery.
Dispatch
A written message, particularly an official communication, sent with speed.
Post
(Sports) A goal post.
Dispatch
An important message sent by a diplomat or an officer in the armed forces.
Post
The starting point at a racetrack.
Dispatch
A news item sent to a news organization, as by a correspondent.
Post
The slender barlike part of a stud earring that passes through the ear and is secured at the back with a small cap or clip.
Dispatch
(transitive) To send (a shipment) with promptness.
Post
An electronic message sent to and displayed on an online forum
Ignored several inflammatory posts.
Dispatch
(transitive) To send (a person) away hastily.
Post
A military base.
Dispatch
(transitive) To send (an important official message) promptly, by means of a diplomat or military officer.
Post
The grounds and buildings of a military base.
Dispatch
(transitive) To send (a journalist) to a place in order to report.
Post
A local organization of military veterans.
Dispatch
(transitive) To dispose of speedily, as business; to execute quickly; to make a speedy end of; to finish; to perform.
Post
Either of two bugle calls in the British Army, sounded in the evening as a signal to retire to quarters.
Dispatch
(transitive) To rid; to free.
Post
An assigned position or station, as of a guard or sentry.
Dispatch
(transitive) To destroy (someone or something) quickly and efficiently.
Post
(Basketball) A position usually taken by the center close to the basket or below the foul line, serving as the focus of the team's offense.
Dispatch
To pass on for further processing, especially via a dispatch table (often with to).
Post
A position of employment, especially an appointed public office.
Dispatch
To hurry.
Post
A place to which someone is assigned for duty.
Dispatch
To deprive.
Post
A trading post.
Dispatch
A message sent quickly, as a shipment, a prompt settlement of a business, or an important official message sent by a diplomat, government official, military officer, etc.
Post
A postal system.
Dispatch
The act of doing something quickly.
We must act with dispatch in this matter.
Post
A post office.
Dispatch
A mission by an emergency response service, typically involving attending to an emergency in the field.
Post
A delivery or amount of mail
Waiting for the morning's post to arrive.
Dispatch
(computing) The passing on of a message for further processing, especially through a dispatch table.
Post
One of a series of relay stations along a fixed route, furnishing fresh riders and horses for the delivery of mail on horseback.
Dispatch
(obsolete) A dismissal.
Post
A rider on such a mail route; a courier.
Dispatch
To dispose of speedily, as business; to execute quickly; to make a speedy end of; to finish; to perform.
Ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch weThe business we have talked of.
[The] harvest men . . . almost in one fair day dispatcheth all the harvest work.
Post
To display (an announcement) in a place of public view.
Dispatch
To rid; to free.
I had clean dispatched myself of this great charge.
Post
To cover (a wall, for example) with posters.
Dispatch
To get rid of by sending off; to send away hastily.
Unless dispatched to the mansion house in the country . . . they perish among the lumber of garrets.
Post
To announce by or as if by posters
Post banns.
Dispatch
To send off or away; - particularly applied to sending off messengers, messages, letters, etc., on special business, and implying haste.
Even with the speediest expeditionI will dispatch him to the emperor's cou .
Post
(Computers) To make (an electronic message) available by sending it to an online forum
Posted a response to a question about car engines.
Dispatch
To send out of the world; to put to death.
The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords.
Post
To put up signs on (property) warning against trespassing.
Dispatch
To make haste; to conclude an affair; to finish a matter of business.
They have dispatched with Pompey.
Post
To denounce publicly
Post a man as a thief.
Dispatch
The act of sending a message or messenger in haste or on important business.
Post
To publish (a name) on a list.
Dispatch
Any sending away; dismissal; riddance.
To the utter dispatch of all their most beloved comforts.
Post
(Games) To gain (points or a point) in a game or contest; score.
Dispatch
The finishing up of a business; speedy performance, as of business; prompt execution; diligence; haste.
Serious business, craving quick dispatch.
To carry his scythe . . . with a sufficient dispatch through a sufficient space.
Post
To assign to a specific position or station
Post a sentry at the gate.
Dispatch
A message dispatched or sent with speed; especially, an important official letter sent from one public officer to another; - often used in the plural; as, a messenger has arrived with dispatches for the American minister; naval or military dispatches.
Post
To appoint to a naval or military command.
Dispatch
A message transmitted by telegraph.
Post
To put forward; present
Post bail.
Dispatch
An official report (usually sent in haste)
Post
Chiefly British To mail (a letter or package).
Dispatch
The act of sending off something
Post
(Archaic) To send by mail in a system of relays on horseback.
Dispatch
The property of being prompt and efficient;
It was done with dispatch
Post
To inform of the latest news
Keep us posted.
Dispatch
Killing a person or animal
Post
To transfer (an item) to a ledger in bookkeeping.
Dispatch
Send away towards a designated goal
Post
To make the necessary entries in (a ledger).
Dispatch
Complete or carry out;
Discharge one's duties
Post
(Computers) To enter (a unit of information) on a record or into a section of storage.
Dispatch
Kill intentionally and with premeditation;
The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered
Post
To travel in stages or relays.
Dispatch
Dispose of rapidly and without delay and efficiently;
He dispatched the task he was assigned
Post
To travel with speed or in haste.
Dispatch
Kill without delay;
The traitor was dispatched by the conspirators
Post
To bob up and down in the saddle in rhythm with a horse's trotting gait.
Post
With great speed; rapidly.
Post
By post horse.
Post
A long dowel or plank protruding from the ground; a fencepost; a lightpost.
Ram a post into the ground
Post
(construction) A stud; a two-by-four.
Post
A pole in a battery.
Post
(dentistry) A long, narrow piece inserted into a root canal to provide retention for a crown.
Post
A prolonged final melody note, among moving harmony notes.
Post
A printing paper size measuring 19.25 inches x 15.5 inches.
Post
(sports) A goalpost.
Post
A location on a basketball court near the basket.
Post
(obsolete) The doorpost of a victualler's shop or inn, on which were chalked the scores of customers; hence, a score; a debt.
Post
The vertical part of a crochet stitch.
Post
(obsolete) Each of a series of men stationed at specific places along a postroad, with responsibility for relaying letters and dispatches of the monarch (and later others) along the route.
Post
(dated) A station, or one of a series of stations, established for the refreshment and accommodation of travellers on some recognized route.
A stage or railway post
Post
A military base; the place at which a soldier or a body of troops is stationed; also, the troops at such a station.
Post
Someone who travels express along a set route carrying letters and dispatches; a courier.
Post
An organisation for delivering letters, parcels etc., or the service provided by such an organisation.
Sent via post; parcel post
Post
A single delivery of letters; the letters or deliveries that make up a single batch delivered to one person or one address.
Post
A message posted in an electronic or Internet forum, or on a blog, etc.
Post
(American football) A moderate to deep passing route in which a receiver runs 10-20 yards from the line of scrimmage straight down the field, then cuts toward the middle of the field (towards the facing goalposts) at a 45-degree angle.
Two of the receivers ran post patterns.
Post
(obsolete) Haste or speed, like that of a messenger or mail carrier.
Post
(obsolete) One who has charge of a station, especially a postal station.
Post
An assigned station; a guard post.
Post
An appointed position in an organization, job.
Post
Post-production.
We'll fix it in post
Post
A post mortem investigation of body's cause of death.
Post
(transitive) To hang (a notice) in a conspicuous manner for general review.
Post no bills.
Post
To hold up to public blame or reproach; to advertise opprobriously; to denounce by public proclamation.
To post someone for cowardice
Post
(accounting) To carry (an account) from the journal to the ledger.
Post
To inform; to give the news to; to make acquainted with the details of a subject; often with up.
Post
To pay down (the stake).
Post
To pay (a blind).
Since Jim was new to the game, he had to post $4 in order to receive a hand.
Post
To travel with relays of horses; to travel by post horses, originally as a courier.
Post
To travel quickly; to hurry.
Post
To send (an item of mail etc.) through the postal service.
Mail items posted before 7.00pm within the Central Business District and before 5.00pm outside the Central Business District will be delivered the next working day.
Post
(horse-riding) To rise and sink in the saddle, in accordance with the motion of the horse, especially in trotting.
Post
(Internet) To publish (a message) to a newsgroup, forum, blog, etc.
I couldn't figure it out, so I posted a question on the mailing list.
Post
To enter (a name) on a list, as for service, promotion, etc.
Post
To assign to a station; to set; to place.
Post a sentinel in front of the door.
Post
With the post, on post-horses; by a relay of horses (changing at every staging-post); hence, express, with speed, quickly.
Post
Sent via the postal service.
Post
After; especially after a significant event that has long-term ramifications.
Post
Hired to do what is wrong; suborned.
Post
A piece of timber, metal, or other solid substance, fixed, or to be fixed, firmly in an upright position, especially when intended as a stay or support to something else; a pillar; as, a hitching post; a fence post; the posts of a house.
They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses.
Then by main force pulled up, and on his shoulders bore,The gates of Azza, post and massy bar.
Unto his order he was a noble post.
Post
The doorpost of a victualer's shop or inn, on which were chalked the scores of customers; hence, a score; a debt.
When God sends coinI will discharge your post.
Post
The place at which anything is stopped, placed, or fixed; a station.
Post
A messenger who goes from station; an express; especially, one who is employed by the government to carry letters and parcels regularly from one place to another; a letter carrier; a postman.
In certain places there be always fresh posts, to carry that further which is brought unto them by the other.
I fear my Julia would not deign my lines,Receiving them from such a worthless post.
Post
An established conveyance for letters from one place or station to another; especially, the governmental system in any country for carrying and distributing letters and parcels; the post office; the mail; hence, the carriage by which the mail is transported.
I send you the fair copy of the poem on dullness, which I should not care to hazard by the common post.
Post
Haste or speed, like that of a messenger or mail carrier.
Post
One who has charge of a station, especially of a postal station.
He held office of postmaster, or, as it was then called, post, for several years.
Post
A station, office, or position of service, trust, or emolument; as, the post of duty; the post of danger.
The post of honor is a private station.
Post
A size of printing and writing paper. See the Table under Paper.
Post
To attach to a post, a wall, or other usual place of affixing public notices; to placard; as, to post a notice; to post playbills.
Post
To hold up to public blame or reproach; to advertise opprobriously; to denounce by public proclamation; as, to post one for cowardice.
On pain of being posted to your sorrowFail not, at four, to meet me.
Post
To enter (a name) on a list, as for service, promotion, or the like.
Post
To assign to a station; to set; to place; as, to post a sentinel.
Post
To carry, as an account, from the journal to the ledger; as, to post an account; to transfer, as accounts, to the ledger.
You have not posted your books these ten years.
Post
To place in the care of the post; to mail; as, to post a letter.
Post
To inform; to give the news to; to make (one) acquainted with the details of a subject; - often with up.
Thoroughly posted up in the politics and literature of the day.
Post
To travel with post horses; figuratively, to travel in haste.
And post o'er land and ocean without rest.
Post
To rise and sink in the saddle, in accordance with the motion of the horse, esp. in trotting.
Post
With post horses; hence, in haste; as, to travel post.
Post
The position where someone (as a guard or sentry) stands or is assigned to stand;
A soldier manned the entrance post
A sentry station
Post
Military installation at which a body of troops is stationed;
This military post provides an important source of income for the town nearby
There is an officer's club on the post
Post
A job in an organization;
He occupied a post in the treasury
Post
An upright consisting of a piece of timber or metal fixed firmly in an upright position;
He set a row of posts in the ground and strung barbwire between them
Post
United States aviator who in 1933 made the first solo flight around the world (1899-1935)
Post
United States female author who wrote a book and a syndicated newspaper column on etiquette (1872-1960)
Post
United States manufacturer of breakfast cereals and Postum (1854-1914)
Post
Any particular collection of letters or packages that is delivered;
Your mail is on the table
Is there any post for me?
She was opening her post
Post
A pole or stake set up to mark something (as the start or end of a race track);
A pair of posts marked the goal
The corner of the lot was indicated by a stake
Post
The system whereby messages are transmitted via the post office;
The mail handles billions of items every day
He works for the United States mail service
In England they call mail `the post'
Post
The delivery and collection of letters and packages;
It came by the first post
If you hurry you'll catch the post
Post
Affix in a public place or for public notice;
Post a warning
Post
Publicize with, or as if with, a poster;
I'll post the news on the bulletin board
Post
Assign to a post; put into a post;
The newspaper posted him in Timbuktu
Post
Assign to a station
Post
Display, as of records in sports games
Post
Enter on a public list
Post
Transfer (entries) from one account book to another
Post
Ride Western style and bob up and down in the saddle in in rhythm with a horse's trotting gait
Post
Mark with a stake;
Stake out the path
Post
Put up;
Post a sign
Post a warning at the dump
Post
Cause to be directed or transmitted to another place;
Send me your latest results
I'll mail you the paper when it's written
Post
Mark or expose as infamous;
She was branded a loose woman
Post
To publish information on a public platform, especially online.
He posted an update on his blog about the recent trip.
Post
The system for sending letters and parcels.
The post office is closed on Sundays.
FAQs
What does post mean?
Post means to send mail through a postal system or share information publicly, especially online.
In what contexts is post commonly used?
Post is used in postal services and online publishing.
Does dispatch imply urgency?
Yes, dispatch often implies urgency and efficiency.
In what contexts is dispatch commonly used?
Dispatch is commonly used in logistics, emergency services, and coordination tasks.
Can dispatch be used for sending information?
Yes, dispatch can refer to sending information quickly, especially in formal reports or messages.
What is the main focus of dispatch?
The main focus of dispatch is the quick and efficient sending of resources or information.
What does dispatch mean?
Dispatch means to send something quickly and efficiently.
Does post imply urgency?
No, post does not inherently imply urgency; it can be routine or scheduled.
Can post be used for online content?
Yes, post is widely used for sharing online content, such as blog posts and social media updates.
Does post involve a system for delivery?
Yes, post involves a system for delivering mail or sharing information publicly.
Can post be used for sending packages?
Yes, post can refer to sending letters and parcels through the postal system.
Is dispatch used in emergency situations?
Yes, dispatch is crucial in emergency services for sending responders promptly.
Can dispatch refer to completing a task?
Yes, dispatch can also mean to deal with a task promptly and efficiently.
Does dispatch require real-time coordination?
Often, yes, dispatch involves real-time coordination, especially in emergency services.
Is post used in digital communication?
Yes, post is widely used for sharing information on digital platforms like social media and blogs.
Is dispatch associated with logistics?
Yes, dispatch is commonly associated with logistics and the coordination of sending goods.
Can dispatch be used for goods and services?
Yes, dispatch is often used for sending goods and services to a destination.
Can post refer to a message or announcement?
Yes, post can refer to a public message or announcement, especially online.
What is the main focus of post?
The main focus of post is the method of sending mail or sharing information publicly.
Is post associated with traditional mail services?
Yes, post is traditionally associated with sending letters and parcels through the mail.
About Author
Written by
Harlon MossHarlon is a seasoned quality moderator and accomplished content writer for Difference Wiki. An alumnus of the prestigious University of California, he earned his degree in Computer Science. Leveraging his academic background, Harlon brings a meticulous and informed perspective to his work, ensuring content accuracy and excellence.
Co-written by
Aimie CarlsonAimie Carlson, holding a master's degree in English literature, is a fervent English language enthusiast. She lends her writing talents to Difference Wiki, a prominent website that specializes in comparisons, offering readers insightful analyses that both captivate and inform.
