noun
hamlet
HAM-lit/ˈhæmlət/
A very small village or rural settlement.
The hamlet consists of a few houses surrounded by fields.
Etymology
The village word ham acquired two layers of diminutive endings, making a hamlet a “little village.” That small-scale meaning survives in its use for a rural cluster of houses.
In context
there rose the towers of a great building with a small gray sloping village around it, and they learned from a passing hind that this was the hamlet and Abbey of Battle.
More examples
- They stopped at a tiny hamlet in the valley.
- A narrow road connected the hamlet to the nearest town.
- The old map marked several remote hamlets.
Forms
hamlet · hamlets
Similar words
- village
- Usually a larger settlement.
- settlement
- Any established community, regardless of size.