Wordpress.org: Where you download the wordpress software if you are going to install it yourself and where you can get plugins, themes, and documentation about wordpress. (Most hosts have 1-click installs for wordpress so you may not actually need to go to wordpress.org.)
Wordpress.com: A hosted blog solution similar to Blogger except that you use a wordpress multiuser platform. Not recommended; host it yourself to maintain control.
Domain Name Registrars: Namecheap, godaddy, network solutions and other companies that register your domain name for you. They may offer hosting as well, but I recommend getting your own host and just using the registrars for getting a domain name. Expect to pay between $8-$12 per year for each domain name.
Hosting Companies: Dreamhost, BlueHost, Media Temple, MidPhase/ANHosting, HostGator, 1&1 etc etc - there are a million hosting companies, and some are better than others. You may be able to register a domain through them when you sign up, but I recommend seperating them out and just using your free domain for a throwaway or ancillary domain - that's up to you though and is more of an advanced topic. The purpose of a hosting company is to provide somewhere to put your actual webpages (or in this case, your wordpress installation) and they are the ones who serve up the pages to your visitors after the domain name registrar points those visitors in the direction of where you are hosted. Expect to pay between $8-$20 per month for cheap hosting and upwards of hundreds or thousands of dollars per month for increasingly good hosting options. Note that most people can get away with cheap hosting and it is easy to upgrade as you need to. Even popular sites can usually get by on $20-$50/month, and anything that requires $100+ per month should be making you plenty of money to cover the expense.
The reason that I think that you can outgrow Dreamhost quickly is that their service isn't very good. Even w/zero visitors, your site will be slow to load. If you start getting around 100 visitors per day, then you may or may not begin to have problems. If you start getting more than that, you will definitely have problems and will have to upgrade or move to a new hosting company. I wouldn't do business with them anymore.
For various reasons, I no longer use BlueHost, 2mHost, 1&1 or DreamHost anymore, although I know people that love all of them. I currently use MidPhase and Media temple and have been happy with both (as a cheap solution in the $8-$20/month range) and I use a dedicated server at Rackspace for an expensive solution (~$800/month and hosts a half dozen ecommerce websites.)
Hope that's helpful.
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