sparse

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sparsus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɑːs/
• IPA^(key): /spɑːɹs/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

sparse (comparative sparser, superlative sparsest)

1. Having widely spaced intervals.

   a sparse array, index, or matrix

   • 2019 October, Tony Miles and Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 58:

     The Leicester to Grimsby service will become hourly throughout (with some extensions to Cleethorpes as at present), while a new hourly Peterborough to Doncaster service via Spalding, Sleaford and Lincoln will join up two routes with a sparse service at present.

2. Not dense; meager; scanty
3. (mathematics) Having few nonzero elements

Synonyms

• (having widely spaced intervals): spread out, thin; see also Thesaurus:diffuse
• (meager): insufficient, paltry; see also Thesaurus:inadequate

Derived terms

• sparsen

Related terms

• sparge

Translations

having widely spaced intervals

• Afrikaans: yl
• Bashkir: һирәк (hirək)
• Catalan: dispers (ca), espars
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: řídký (cs) m
• Dutch: verspreid (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: hõre
• Finnish: harva (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: épars (fr), clairsemé (fr)
• Georgian: მეჩხერი (mečxeri)
• German: spärlich (de)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: ritka (hu), ritkás
• Italian: sparso (it), spargolo
• Russian: ре́дкий (ru) (rédkij)
• Spanish: disperso (es)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Westrobothnian: , ,

not dense; meager

• Afrikaans: yl
• Bashkir: һирәк (hirək)
• Catalan: clar (ca), escàs (ca)
• Czech: řídký (cs)
• Dutch: schaars (nl),dun (nl),mager (nl)
• Finnish: harva (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Georgian: მეჩხერი (mečxeri), თხელი (txeli), მწირი (mc̣iri)
• German: spärlich (de), dünn (de)
• Hungarian: gyér (hu)
• Romanian: rar (ro)
• Russian: ре́дкий (ru) (rédkij)
• Vietnamese: thưa (vi), thưa thớt (vi)

See also

• thin out

Verb

1. (obsolete) To scatter; to disperse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:disperse

Anagrams

• Aspers, Spears, Speras, aspers, parses, passer, prases, presas, repass, sarpes, spares, spaser, spears

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Italian

Verb

sparse

1. third-person singular past historic of spargere
2. third-person singular past historic of sparere

sparse f

1. feminine plural of sparso

Anagrams

• pressa, spersa

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Latin

Participle

(deprecated template usage) sparse

1. vocative masculine singular of sparsus

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Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsparse]

Verb

sparse

1. third-person singular simple perfect indicative of sparge