— sparsely , adv. — sparseness, sparsity /spahr"si tee/ , n.
/spahrs/ , adj., sparser, sparsest .
1. thinly scattered or distributed: a sparse population.
2. not thick or dense; thin: sparse hair.
3. scanty; meager.
[ 1715-25; sparsus, ptp. of spargere to scatter, SPARGE ]
Syn. 1-3. See scanty .
Ant. 1-3. abundant.