From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhamletham‧let /ˈhæmlɪt/ noun [countable] TOWNa very small village
Examples from the Corpus
hamlet• Both lived in Coahoma, a hamlet of about 1,200 residents 10 miles to the east of Big Spring.• Its total population in the mid-nineteenth century was probably in excess of many medieval hamlets or even small villages.• His repressions were too blatant, his strategic hamlet and land-reform programs had too obviously failed.• He told those responsible their hamlet would burn if it happened again.• The western hamlet has survived with the present parish church of St Nicholas.HamletHamlet the main character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, which is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, and is a serious, unhappy young man who is unable to decide how he feels or what he should do. There are many famous phrases from this play, including ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’ and ‘Alas, poor Yorick’, and in pictures Hamlet is often shown holding Yorick's skull (=the head of a dead person without any flesh on it). → OpheliaOrigin hamlet (1300-1400) Old French hamelet, from ham “village” 