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Barren vs Sparse - What's the difference?

barren | sparse |

As adjectives the difference between barren and sparse

is that barren is unable to bear children; sterile while sparse is having widely spaced intervals.

As a noun barren

is an area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.

As a verb sparse is

to scatter; to disperse.

barren

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (label) Unable to bear children; sterile.
    • I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren ?
  • Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation.
  • * (1800–1859)
    • barren mountain tracts
  • * '>citation
  • Bleak.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2
    • , passage=As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.}}
  • Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
  • * (1796-1859)
    • brilliant but barren reveries
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
    • Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
    • , title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=Rooney had been suffered a barren spell for England with only one goal in 15 games but he was in no mood to ignore the gifts on offer in front of an increasingly subdued Bulgarian support.}}
  • Mentally dull; stupid.
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet), III.ii. ca. 1602
    • Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.

    Synonyms

    * sterile

    Antonyms

    * fertile * fruitful

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.
    • The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.

    sparse

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Having widely spaced intervals.
  • Not dense; meager.

    • Related terms

    * thin out

    Derived terms

    * sparse array * sparse index * sparse matrix

    Verb

    (spars)
  • (obsolete) To scatter; to disperse.
    • (Spenser)

    Anagrams

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