Sparse

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sparse \Sparse\, a. [Compar. {Sparser}; superl. {Sparsest}.] [L.
     sparsus, p. p. of spargere to strew, scatter. Cf. {Asperse},
     {Disperse}.]
     1. Thinly scattered; set or planted here and there; not being
        dense or close together; as, a sparse population.
        --Carlyle.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Bot.) Placed irregularly and distantly; scattered; --
        applied to branches, leaves, peduncles, and the like.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sparse \Sparse\, v. t. [L. sparsus, p. p. of spargere to
     scatter.]
     To scatter; to disperse. [Obs.] --Spenser.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sparse
       adj : not dense; "a thin beard"; "trees were sparse" [syn: {thin}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  64 Moby Thesaurus words for "sparse":
     almost unheard-of, at a premium, broadcast, cheeseparing, chinchy,
     chintzy, diffuse, discrete, dispersed, dispread, disseminated,
     dissipated, distributed, exiguous, in short supply, inappreciable,
     infrequent, insignificant, limited, little, meager, miserly,
     niggardly, not much, occasional, out of print, out of season,
     out of stock, piddling, poor, rare, scant, scanty, scarce,
     scattered, scrimp, scrimping, scrimpy, seldom met with,
     seldom seen, skimp, skimping, skimpy, slim, slow, spare, sparing,
     sporadic, spotty, spread, spread out, sprinkled, stingy,
     straggling, straggly, strewn, strown, thin, tight, uncommon,
     unfrequent, unique, unusual, widespread
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  sparse
       
          A sparse {matrix} (or {vector}, or {array}) is one in which
          most of the elements are zero.  If storage space is more
          important than access speed, it may be preferable to store a
          sparse matrix as a list of (index, value) pairs or use some
          kind of {hash} scheme or {associative memory}.
       
          (1995-01-16)