sparsity
Americannoun
-
the fact or condition of being thinly scattered or distributed and not thick or dense.
The size of these rural counties and the sparsity of their populations make it more costly to administer social services.
-
the fact or quality of being small in amount or number; scantiness.
Not only is there a sparsity of rainfall in extremely arid deserts, but high evaporation rates soon remove whatever moisture it provides.
Other Word Forms
- unsparseness noun
Etymology
Origin of sparsity
First recorded in 1860–65; spars(e) ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Jones heightens the sense of unease with a style that favors sparsity and acoustic alertness.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
The GP-to-patient ratio already trails the national average by 18%, it added, with recruitment hampered by "confusion around funding, poor estates and a sparsity of applications".
From BBC • Nov. 22, 2023
Researchers can also leverage sparsity to more efficiently move and process data on a computer chip.
From Science Daily • Oct. 31, 2023
That philosophical reticence may make these paintings even more of a welcome disruption than their visual sparsity.
From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2022
Fyfe maintained his habitual sparsity of words while they ate the food Mrs. Howe brought on a tray hot from the cook's outlying domain.
From Big Timber A Story of the Northwest by Sinclair, Bertrand W.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
