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
Etymology
Origin of sparsity
First recorded in 1860–65; spars(e) ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )
Explanation
Sparsity is the condition of not having enough of something. You might notice the sparsity of hair on your grandpa's head — but if you're polite, you won't bring it up. You can talk about the sparsity of grass in your brown and patchy lawn, or the sparsity of customers at your mac-and-cheese food truck. Whenever there's a shortage, a lack, or a deficiency of something, it's in a state of sparsity. Sparsity comes from the Latin sparsus, the past participle of a verb meaning "to strew or scatter."
Vocabulary lists containing sparsity
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
By contrast, the hardware accelerator the MIT researchers designed, called HighLight, can handle a wide variety of sparsity patterns and still perform well when running models that don't have any zero values.
From Science Daily • Oct. 31, 2023
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 • Oct. 14, 2022
I have seen several houses furnished entirely by William Morris, and the first thing that impressed me was the sparsity of things.
From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05 Little Journeys to the Homes of English Authors by Hubbard, Elbert
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.
