sparse

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sparse / spärs/ • adj. thinly dispersed or scattered: areas of sparse population. ∎  austere; meager: an elegantly sparse chamber.DERIVATIVES: sparse·ly adv.sparse·ness n.spar·si·ty / ˈspärsitē/ n.ORIGIN: early 18th cent. (used to describe writing in the sense ‘widely spaced’): from Latin sparsus, past participle of spargere ‘scatter.’