Meaning & use
sparsely
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Meanings
adverbnot comparable
In a thinly spread way, with few people or things in a large area.
Grammar: Often comes before a past participle: sparsely populated.
Patterns
- sparsely populated
- sparsely furnished
The northern region is sparsely populated.
The room was sparsely furnished, with just a bed and a chair.
Trees grew sparsely along the dry hillside.
adverbnot comparable
In a small amount or too little, so that something looks thin or bare.
Grammar: Used with verbs of covering or growing: grass grew sparsely.
Patterns
- grow sparsely
- cover sparsely
The hair on his head grew sparsely.
The wall was sparsely decorated with a few prints.
The audience was sparsely seated in the huge hall.
Word forms
| comparative | more sparsely |
|---|---|
| superlative | most sparsely |
Common combinations
- sparsely populated
- Much of the desert is sparsely populated.
- sparsely furnished
- The cottage was sparsely furnished but cozy.
- sparsely attended
- The lecture was sparsely attended.
- sparsely wooded
- The sparsely wooded hills looked bare.
- sparsely scattered
- Houses were sparsely scattered across the plain.
Synonyms and how they differ
- thinly
- Thinly is a plain word for spread in a thin layer or with gaps, and is less formal than sparsely.
- scantily
- Scantily suggests a lack of what is needed, as in scantily clad.
- scarcely
- Scarcely means hardly at all, so it describes amount, not spread.
- meagerly
- Meagerly suggests a poor, disappointing amount.
Opposites
Word family
- sparse adjective
- thinly spread or in small amounts
- sparseness noun
- the state of being thin or scattered
- sparsity noun
- a lack of density
- sparser adjective
- more thinly spread
Commonly confused: sparsely or sparingly? sparsely or sparsely?
sparsely vs sparingly
Sparingly means using very little on purpose, as in use salt sparingly, while sparsely describes thin distribution.
sparsely vs sparsely
Do not confuse with sparse, the adjective: a sparse crowd, but a sparsely seated crowd.
Practice
The island is ____ populated, with only a few farms along the coast.
Choose one answer.
Sparsely populated means few people live there, which fits an island with only a few farms. Densely and heavily mean the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sparsely”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.