Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being sparse; scattered condition; wide separation: as, sparseness of population.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality or state of being sparse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable The state or quality of being
sparse . - noun countable, rare The result or product of being
sparse .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the property of being scanty or scattered; lacking denseness
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Her short stories have the sparseness and impact of Raymond Carver or Haruki Murakami; simple words forming neat sentences that pack a great emotional punch.
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Sharon's bass and breathily intoned vocals are often the crux of a song, and sparseness and restraint always the watchwords, with even guest Johnny Marr reining himself in so his guitar sinuously entwines with the bass and synth lines on Can't Put it Down Until it Ends.
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The more color-saturated imagery is more pretty than gritty, the violence more spectacular, the sparseness of the original dialogue exaggerated beyond dry into stiff.
Farihah Zaman: 2010 Fantastic Fest #1: Remakes - did we Let the Right One In? Farihah Zaman 2010
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To make the numbers easier to deal with (i.e. 1) I inverted the definition so L-density becomes the ratio of the number of characters to the number of Ls. (Technically, I suppose it should be called L-sparseness, but that sounds ugly.)
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The more color-saturated imagery is more pretty than gritty, the violence more spectacular, the sparseness of the original dialogue exaggerated beyond dry into stiff.
Farihah Zaman: 2010 Fantastic Fest #1: Remakes - did we Let the Right One In? Farihah Zaman 2010
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The more color-saturated imagery is more pretty than gritty, the violence more spectacular, the sparseness of the original dialogue exaggerated beyond dry into stiff.
Farihah Zaman: 2010 Fantastic Fest #1: Remakes - did we Let the Right One In? Farihah Zaman 2010
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Ever since Böll, I miss reading such wry sparseness in a novel.
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Ever since Böll, I miss reading such wry sparseness in a novel.
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It was about five years ago, but the book really stuck in my mind: the brutal murder of a young soldier; the sparseness of the prose; the violent, vivid heat.
Mario Vargas Llosa: a worthy Nobel prize for literature winner? Sarah Crown 2010
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This space takes natural light and mutes it with cool colors, smooth edges and studied sparseness.
A Makeover for Marc Jacobs Robbie Whelan 2012
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