sparse

English

Borrowed from Latin sparsus .

sparse (comparative sparser , superlative sparsest )

Having widely spaced intervals.
a sparse array, index, or matrix
- 2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, "EMR kicks off new era", in Modern Railways, page 58:
  The Leicester to Grimsby service will become hourly throughout (with some extensions to Cleethorpes as at present), while a new hourly Peterborough to Doncaster service via Spalding, Sleaford and Lincoln will join up two routes with a sparse service at present.
Not dense; meager; scanty
(mathematics ) Having few nonzero elements

(having widely spaced intervals): spread out , thin ; see also Thesaurus:diffuse
(meager): insufficient , paltry ; see also Thesaurus:inadequate

having widely spaced intervals

Afrikaans: yl
Albanian: shpërndarë (sq)
Assamese: তাকৰীয়া (takoria)
Azerbaijani: seyrək
Bashkir: һирәк (hirək)
Belarusian: рэ́дкі (be) (rédki)
Bulgarian: ря́дък (bg) (rjádǎk)
Catalan: dispers (ca) , espars (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
Czech: řídký (cs) m
Dutch: verspreid (nl)
Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
Estonian: hõre
Finnish: harva (fi)
French: épars (fr) , clairsemé (fr)
Georgian: მეჩხერი (mečxeri)
German: spärlich (de)
Hebrew: דליל m (dalíl)
Hindi: विरल (hi) (viral)
Hungarian: ritka (hu) , ritkás (hu) , szórványos (hu)
Italian: sparso (it) , spargolo
Macedonian: редок (redok)
Old Church Slavonic:
Cyrillic: рѣдъкъ (rědŭkŭ)

Roman: rédak (sh) , rijédak (sh)
Polish: rzadki (pl)
Portuguese: esparso (pt) , disperso (pt)
Russian: ре́дкий (ru) (rédkij)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ре́дак , рије́дак
Slovak: riedky
Spanish: disperso (es)
Swedish: gles (sv)
Thai: please add this translation if you can
Ukrainian: рідки́й (ridkýj)

not dense; meager

having few nonzero elements

sparse (third-person singular simple present sparses , present participle sparsing , simple past and past participle sparsed )

(obsolete ) To disperse, to scatter.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:disperse
- 1536, [Richard Morison], A Remedy for Sedition, London: [...] Thomae Bertheleti [...], →OCLC, signature F. i.:
  They began properly to sparse pretye rumours in the North, that no man shulde eate whyte breade, no man eate pygge, goose, or capon, without he agreed before with the kynge.