hamlet

/ˈhæm.lɪt/US/ˈhæm.lət/

hamlet noun: a small settlement or a group of houses, often defined as a settlement smaller than a village.

Noun (1)

hamlet (plural hamlets)

A small settlement or a group of houses, often defined as a settlement smaller than a village.
- Coal′brookdale, a hamlet of England, co. of Salop, on a railway, 2 miles N. of Broseley, on the Severn. Pop. 1574, engaged in collieries, foundries, and fire-brick and tobacco-pipe manufactories.1880, J.B. Lippincott Company, Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World, Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five...
- Georgetown, a hamlet in Frederick co., Md., on the Frederick & Pennsylvania Line Railroad, 6 miles N.E. of Frederick. It has 2 churches.1880, J.B. Lippincott Company, Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World, Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five...
Synonyms:

thorp
(UK) A village that does not have its own church.
- One hundred thirtie two thousand of Parish Churches, Hamlets, and Villages of all sorts.1604, View of Frannce
- The case stated, That Thomas G., the pauper, […] served that year at S.; which is a hamlet consisting of one house only, and between three and four hundred acres of land : that the said hamlet of S. had never contributed towards the relief of the poor of the parish of T., nor had ever been assessed...1827, E. Bott, edited by John Tidd Pratt, The Laws Relating to the Poor, Including the Collections Originally Made by E. Bott ... and Afterwards Edited by F. Const ... The Sixth Edition: in which the...
(Canada, specifically) An unincorporated community of whatever size, lacking its own municipal government, but with defined boundaries.
- […] Wessex county (a pseudonym) comprising rural area (pop. 8,434); four incorporated towns plus the section of land containing the largest hamlet in the county (pop. 2,489)1970, World Health Organization, World Health Organization/International Collaborative Study of Medical Care Utilization
- Sherwood Park is a hamlet with a population of 35 500 while the rural area has a population exceeding 20 000 people.1993, John S. Marczyk, Denis B. Johnson, Sustainable Landscapes: Proceedings of the Third Symposium of the Canadian Society for Landscape Ecology and Management, University of Alberta, June 1992
Any of the fish of the genus Hypoplectrus in the family Serranidae.
- Larval hamlets are similar to larval Serranus and spend several weeks in the plankton feeding on a variety of tiny crustaceans and invertebrates before metamorphosing and settling on to the reef.1980, Ronald E. Thresher, Reef Fish: Behavior and Ecology on the Reef and in the Aquarium
- Shy Hamlet […] The back of this hamlet is dark in some specimens but a much bluer shade in others. […] Amazingly, each fish is a hermaphrodite, possessing both male and female sex organs, so any two Shy Hamlets should be able to mate successfully.2019 February 12, David Alderton, Encyclopedia of Aquarium and Pond Fish, Penguin, →ISBN, page 272

Proper noun capitalized: Hamlet

Hamlet

A William Shakespeare play about the Danish royal family.
The eponymous main character of William Shakespeare's play, whose father's ghost, murdered by Hamlet's uncle, exhorts him to seek revenge.
A male given name.
A surname.
An unincorporated community in Marin County, California.
An unincorporated community in Mercer County, Illinois.
A town in Starke County, Indiana, named after John Hamlet.
A village in Hayes County, Nebraska, so-named as it was regarded as a hamlet.
A hamlet in Chautauqua County, New York.
A city in Richmond County, North Carolina.
An unincorporated community in Clatsop County, Oregon, regarded as a hamlet.
An unincorporated community in Raleigh County, West Virginia, so-named for its small size.

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A locality in Alberta, Canada, named after William Hamlet.
A settlement in Gittisham parish, East Devon district, Devon, England, just outside Honiton (OS grid ref SY1499).
A hamlet in Yetminster parish and Chetnole parish, Dorset, England (OS grid ref ST5908).

Noun (2) capitalized: HAMLET

HAMLET (uncountable)

A protein complex of alpha-lactalbumin and oleic acid that induces apoptosis in tumor cells, but not in healthy cells.

hamlet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hamlet in Hindi

small village: खेड़ा kheṛā, पल्ली pallī, पुरवा purvā

hamlet in Tamil

சிறு கிராமம், குக்கிராமம், சிற்றூர், தொட்டி, குப்பம்

hamlet in Marathi

hamlet, settlement: वाडी vāḍī
hamlet: गांवधें gāuvdhẽ

hamlet in Urdu

چھوٹا گاؤں, دہ, ڈیرہ, ڈھوک, گاؤں, جھوک

More languagesFewer languages

hamlet in Bengali: পল্লি polli
hamlet in Telugu: పల్లెటూరు palleṭūru, పల్లె palle
hamlet in Malayalam: ചെറുഗ്രാമം, കുഗ്രാമം, ചേരി
hamlet in Kannada: ಹಳ್ಳಿ haḷḷi
hamlet in Sanskrit: ग्राम grāma
hamlet in Indonesian: kampung
hamlet in Persian: دهکده dehkade
hamlet in Vietnamese: xóm

Examples of hamlet in a sentence

Actually, I think they call it a "hamlet." That's how cute it is.2023, Sam Esmail, Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind, spoken by Amanda (Julia Roberts):
Hunsley is a hamlet in the parish of Rowley.1888, Thomas Burton, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hemingsbrough in the County of York, page 172:
The Village voted to dissolve into a hamlet within the ID, but retained its name.1998, Nancy Klos, The State of Unicity: 25 Years Later: Conference Proceedings (October 3-4, 1997), Institute of Urban Studies, →ISBN:
In 1972, the village was dissolved, and the community became an organized hamlet.2008, David McLennan, Our Towns: Saskatchewan Communities from Abbey to Zenon Park, page 11:

All 26 example sentences with hamlet

Synonyms of hamlet

thorp

Forms of hamlet

Noun
plural	hamlets
Proper noun
alternative form	Hamblet
alternative form	Hamblett
alternative form	Hamlett

Plural of hamlet: hamlets

Origin of hamlet

From Middle English hamlet, hamelet, a borrowing from Old French hamelet, diminutive of Old French hamel, in turn diminutive of Old French ham, of Germanic origin, from Frankish *haim, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (whence English home). Equivalent to Middle English ham (“home, village”) + -let (“small”).

From Latin Amlethus, as written by 13th-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, and borrowed into English by way of François de Belleforest's French Hamlet, originally rendered as Hamblet in English. Ultimately from Old Danish Amlethæ, corresponding to Old Norse Amlóði (“fool”), claimed to be suggestive of the way that Hamlet acts in the play, from ama (“to annoy”).

Acronym of Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumor cells, chosen to spell out Hamlet.

Words formed from hamlet

Phrases with hamlet

Wenhaston with Mells Hamlet

Questions about hamlet

What does hamlet mean?: Hamlet means a small settlement or a group of houses, often defined as a settlement smaller than a village.
What is hamlet in Hindi?: Hamlet in Hindi is खेड़ा (kheṛā), पल्ली (pallī), पुरवा (purvā). See Hamlet meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hamlet in a sentence?: Actually, I think they call it a "hamlet." That's how cute it is.
What part of speech is hamlet?: Hamlet can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hamlet?: Hamlet is pronounced /ˈhæm.lɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of hamlet?: The plural of hamlet is hamlets.

Words near hamlet in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hamlet.wav.

Cite this entry: “hamlet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hamlet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.