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

KFARAKKA, Lebanon — In normal times, you’d rarely hear of Kfarakka, a hamlet nestled in the lush green mountains of north Lebanon whose primary claim to fame is that it’s the country’s top olive oil producer.

From Los Angeles Times

Taylor grew up there in Mullumbimby, a small hamlet in northern New South Wales, and a town she describes as “dirty hippie, no shoes, like antivax, organic food.”

From Los Angeles Times

Farmers' homes in hamlets around the industrial town of Rohtak are suddenly in demand, doubling up as movie sets.

From BBC

The Maoist insurgency, which began in Naxalbari, a hamlet in West Bengal state in the late 1960s, had spread to large parts of India, including Bihar.

From BBC

Casualties surged this week after a flash food caused by the typhoon on Tuesday wiped out the entire hamlet of Lang Nu in northern Vietnam’s Lao Cai province.

From Salon