Haste, hurry, speed, expedition, dispatch are comparable when meaning quickness or swiftness in movement or in action.
Haste implies quickness or swiftness in persons rather than in machines, vehicles, or methods of transportation; thus, a business that requires haste demands that the persons concerned move or act swiftly. But haste may imply other goads than urgency or pressure for time; it may imply intense eagerness or lack of due reflection and precipitancy in decision or the impulsion of anger.
Hurry, though often used in place of haste as the simpler term, distinctively carries a stronger implication of confusion, agitation, and bustle and more frequently refers to the things which are operated or the actions which are performed with haste than to the persons concerned; thus, one makes haste in the preparation of a report needed immediately, but the hurry of its preparation may result in several errors being overlooked. Also, hurry may imply the state of mind or the need of one who demands haste as well as of the one who makes haste.
Speed (see also SPEED 2 ) usually implies mere swiftness or rapidity, primarily in motion or movement but secondarily in action, performance, or accomplishment. Unlike haste and hurry, the term, which may be used in reference to things as well as to persons, carries no connotations of precipitancy, urgency, or agitation, although it may carry a suggestion of success.
Expedition and dispatch imply both speed and efficiency especially in business or affairs, but dispatch carries a stronger suggestion of promptness in bringing matters to a conclusion, and expedition more often carries a hint of ease or efficiency of performance.