hamlet

¹

[ ham-lit ]

noun

1. a small village.
2. British. a village without a church of its own, belonging to the parish of another village or town.

hamlet

²

[ ham-lit ]

noun

, plural (especially collectively) ham·let, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) ham·lets.

1. any of various sea basses of the family Serranidae, found in the warm waters of the western Atlantic Ocean, especially the Nassau grouper.

Hamlet

³

[ ham-lit ]

noun

1. (italics) a tragedy (first printed 1603) by Shakespeare.
2. the hero of this play, a young prince who avenges the murder of his father.

hamlet

/ ˈhæmlɪt /

noun

1. a small village or group of houses
2. (in Britain) a village without its own church

Hamlet

1. A tragedy by William Shakespeare . The king of Denmark has been murdered by his brother, Claudius, who then becomes king and marries the dead king's widow. The ghost of the dead king visits his son, Prince Hamlet, and urges him to avenge the murder. In the course of the play, Hamlet, a scholar, slowly convinces himself that he must murder Claudius. The play ends with a duel between Hamlet and the courtier Laertes, and the death by poison of all the principal characters .

Notes

The character Hamlet has come to symbolize a person whose thoughtful nature is an obstacle to quick and decisive action.

Hamlet , Shakespeare's longest play, contains several soliloquies — speeches in which Hamlet, alone, speaks his thoughts. Many lines from the play are very familiar, such as “ Alas, poor Yorick! ”; “ Frailty, thy name is woman! ”; “ Get thee to a nunnery ”; “ The lady doth protest too much ”; “ There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio ”; “ Neither a borrower nor a lender be ”; “ There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow ”; “ Something is rotten in the state of Denmark ”; and “ To be, or not to be : that is the question.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of hamlet¹

1300–50; Middle English hamelet < Middle French, equivalent to hamel (diminutive of ham < Germanic; home ) + -et -et

Origin of hamlet²

First recorded in 1950–55; origin obscure

Word History and Origins

Origin of hamlet¹

C14: from Old French hamelet, diminutive of hamel, from ham, of Germanic origin; compare Old English hamm plot of pasture, Low German hamm enclosed land; see home

Synonym Study

See community.

Example Sentences

“I played Hamlet in college, and I will say this is harder because everything is subject to interpretation.”

From Los Angeles Times

The child, who has not been named for legal reasons, lives in a one bedroom home in Tower Hamlets in London which needs to be extended to provide another bedroom and space for his equipment.

From BBC

One of the locations it uses is Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, which Mr Rensten says is "the most fertile and diverse square mile of the city".

From BBC

The final play on my itinerary was “Good Bones,” by Ijames, a playwright I’ve been eager to get to know better after “Fat Ham,” his brilliantly hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning riff on “Hamlet.”

From Los Angeles Times

Set in Elsinore, which has become a surveillance state, the play centres on Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening to the lies and corruption in Denmark, gradually revealed by ghosts and music.

From BBC