posthaste
/ˌpəʊstˈheɪst/
"posthaste" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“posthaste” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Quickly, as fast as someone travelling post; with great speed.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | posthaste |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˌpəʊstˈheɪst/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “posthaste” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for posthaste is 9 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌpəʊstˈheɪst/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Quickly, as fast as someone travelling post; with great speed.".
No misspelling variants are generated for posthaste in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the former instruction on letters ‘haste, post, haste’, later reinterpreted as a compound of post + haste. The correct English form is posthaste, spelled P-O-S-T-H-A-S-T-E.
Definition
- 1Quickly, as fast as someone travelling post; with great speed.
Etymology
From the former instruction on letters ‘haste, post, haste’, later reinterpreted as a compound of post + haste.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “posthaste”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-O-S-T-H-A-S-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌpəʊstˈheɪst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.