sparse

Adjective
Synonyms: thin

WordNet 3.0

Adjective (1)

  1. not dense“a thin beard”“trees were sparse”Synonyms: thin
Word of the day · Sep 28About this word
onerousadjective

What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz

Advertisement

Webster's Dictionary (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]


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

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

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)

Advertisement