Sparse

//spɑːɹs// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To disperse, to scatter. obsolete

    "They began properly to ſparſe pretye rumours in the North, that no man ſhulde eate whyte breade, no man eate pygge, gooſe, or capon, without he agreed before with the kynge."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having widely spaced intervals.

    "a sparse array, index, or matrix"

  2. 2
    Not dense; meager; scanty
  3. 3
    Having few nonzero elements
Adjective
  1. 1
    not dense wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
distributedthreadbarealmost unheard-ofat a premiumbesprengebroadcast

Example

More examples

"It makes things easier if your matrix is sparse."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sparsus.

Related phrases

sparse arraysparse tablethin out

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.