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hamlet

/ˈhæmlət/
/ˈhæmlɪt/
IPA guide

Other forms: hamlets

That small settlement you pass through along a country road is not just a cluster of houses. It’s a hamlet.

You may be familiar with Shakespeare’s famous play describing the plight of the doomed prince Hamlet. Remember the meaning of the common noun hamlet this way: Picture an alternate Hamlet cheerfully living in a small village in the country (a hamlet), without family tension or the need to avenge his father. Does that help?

Definitions of hamlet
  1. noun
    a community of people smaller than a village
    synonyms: crossroads
    see moresee less
    type of:
    community
    a group of people living in a particular local area
  2. noun
    a settlement smaller than a town
    synonyms: village
    see moresee less
    examples:
    Cheddar
    a village in southwestern England where cheddar cheese was first made
    Sealyham
    a village in southwestern Wales where the Sealyham terrier was first bred
    El Alamein
    a village to the west of Alexandria on the northern coast of Egypt; the scene of a decisive Allied victory over the Germans in 1942
    Jericho
    a village in Palestine near the north end of the Dead Sea; in the Old Testament it was the first place taken by the Israelites under Joshua as they entered the Promised Land
    Jamestown
    a former village on the James River in Virginia to the north of Norfolk; site of the first permanent English settlement in America in 1607
    Chancellorsville
    a village in northeastern Virginia
    Spotsylvania
    a village in northeastern Virginia where battles were fought during the American Civil War
    Yorktown
    a historic village in southeastern Virginia to the north of Newport News; site of the last battle of the American Revolution
    types:
    campong, kampong
    a native village in Malaysia
    kraal
    a village of huts for native Africans in southern Africa; usually surrounded by a stockade
    pueblo
    a communal village built by Native Americans in the southwestern United States
    type of:
    settlement
    an area where a group of families live together
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