dispatcher
Americannoun
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a person who dispatches.
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a person who oversees the departure of trains, airplanes, buses, etc., as for a transportation company or railroad.
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Slang. dispatchers, a fraudulently made pair of dice; loaded dice.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dispatcher
Explanation
A dispatcher is someone whose work involves receiving messages and organizing the movement of ambulances and other vehicles. Being a dispatcher requires excellent communication skills in a high-pressure environment. An emergency dispatcher's work day might include getting phone calls from people who need medical assistance or the help of firefighters. A taxi dispatcher, on the other hand, communicates with each cab driver about where to pick up passengers who've called for rides. To dispatch is to send something off quickly, and for most dispatchers, their job is dispatching vehicles.
Vocabulary lists containing dispatcher
"My Favorite Chaperone," Vocabulary from the short story
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"My Favorite Chaperone" by Jean Davies Okimoto
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Lesson 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The dispatcher could hear a lot of noise, but nothing else.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
She told the dispatcher she was going to throw up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Filipino ferry dispatcher Dave Delos Reyes has been handing out N95 masks for nearly three weeks to protect passengers against the smoke that a landfill fire has sent billowing above a stretch of Manila Bay.
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
“My father has been illegally detained,” he told the dispatcher nervously, stumbling over his words.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
“I won’t if I don’t have to . . .” The dispatcher said, “Sal Bugbee, Buddy Namath, and Ernie Maestas are all on the way.”
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Minutes later, officials radioed that a caller who reached 911—an unidentified woman who said she wasn’t in the home and was driving from Baltimore to the address—had told dispatchers his front door was unlocked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
The one year pay deal covers Menzies dispatchers, allocators, airside agents, and controllers.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
PJM’s energy dispatchers essentially function as air-traffic controllers, rerouting power as needed to meet demand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
The dispatchers continued to tell him to just hang in there and wait.
From Slate ● May 13, 2026
It was an odd and familiar sound—Joe Castiglione’s voice and the crack of the bat, layered with occasional farty blips and cryptic messages between cops and dispatchers.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
