sparsely

[ spahrs-lee ]

adverb

1. in a thinly distributed way; not thickly or densely:

   Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is very sparsely populated, as more than 90% of it is forested.

2. in a scanty or meager way:

   It was a large kitchen, but very sparsely equipped for cooking.

Other Words From

• un·sparse·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of sparsely¹

sparse ( def ) + -ly

Example Sentences

Those qualities include the savanna’s sprawling grasslands, sparse trees, cliffs and other vantage points, as well as bodies of water, which provided resources.

From Nautilus

McCann knew he was a capable writer, but the career opportunities in the press were increasingly sparse.

From Vox

The list of launch titles is still relatively sparse and, while the backwards compatibility is awesome, it probably won’t totally revolutionize the experience you have with your favorite game—at least not yet.

From Popular-Science

GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters, “10x more than any previous non-sparse language model,” according to OpenAI researchers.

From Search Engine Land

Denisovan genetic evidence remains sparse, says paleogeneticist Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona.

From Science News

Related Words

• casually
• delicately
• easily
• faintly
• freely
• gingerly
• mildly
• moderately
• quietly
• simply
• slightly
• softly
• subtly
• tenderly
• thinly