ETYM Old Eng. hamelet, Old Fren. hamelet, dim. of hamel, French hameau, Late Lat. hamellum, a dim. of German origin; cf. German heim home. Related to Home.
A community of people smaller than a village; SYN. crossroads.

1. City in North Carolina (USA); zip code 28345.
2. Town in Indiana (USA); zip code 46532.
3. Village in Nebraska (USA); zip code 69031.

Tragedy by William Shakespeare, first performed 1601–02. Hamlet, after much hesitation, avenges the murder of his father, the king of Denmark, by the king's brother Claudius, who has married Hamlet's mother. The play ends with the death of all three.
Hamlet is haunted by his father’s ghost demanding revenge, is torn between love and loathing for his mother, and becomes responsible for the deaths of his lover Ophelia, her father and brother, and his student companions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In the monologue beginning “To be, or not to be” he contemplates suicide.