sparsity

Also sparse·ness

[spahr-si-tee]

noun

1. 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.

2. 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of sparsity¹

First recorded in 1860–65; spars(e) ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )

Example Sentences

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

Existing approaches often limit the locations of nonzero values by enforcing a sparsity pattern to simplify the search, but this limits the variety of sparse tensors that can be processed efficiently.

From Science Daily

Other military experts agreed that Ukraine’s record of shooting down missiles has been good, especially given the age and sparsity of Ukraine’s equipment.

From New York Times

Military experts say the Ukrainians’ rate of shooting down missiles is good, especially given the age and sparsity of Ukraine’s equipment.

From New York Times

That philosophical reticence may make these paintings even more of a welcome disruption than their visual sparsity.

From New York Times

Related Words

• dearth 
• drought 
• famine 
• inadequacy 
• insufficiency 
• lack 
• paucity 
• shortage