Standard Lemma guide

sparingly

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • CMU ARPABET: S P EH1 R IH0 NG L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In a sparing manner; with frugality, moderation, scantiness, reserve, forbearance, or the like; sparsely.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

to a meager degree or in a meager manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • these voices are meagerly represented at the conference
  • the area is slenderly endowed with natural resources

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: meagerly, slenderly, meagrely

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English sparing Middle English -ly English -ly English sparingly From sparing + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

24 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: parcament — in a sparing manner
  • Catalan: parsimoniosament — in a sparing manner
  • Dutch: spaarzaam — in a sparing manner
  • Finnish: säästeliäästi — in a sparing manner
  • French: parcimonieusement — in a sparing manner
  • Greek: με φειδώ (me feidó) — in a sparing manner
  • Icelandic: sparlega — in a sparing manner
  • Italian: parsimoniosamente — in a sparing manner
  • Latin: parcē — in a sparing manner
  • Occitan: parsimoniosament — in a sparing manner
  • Occitan: primotièirament — in a sparing manner
  • Occitan: primotièrament — in a sparing manner
  • Portuguese: moderadamente — in a sparing manner
  • Romanian: moderat — in a sparing manner
  • Romanian: frugal — in a sparing manner
  • Romanian: cu măsură — in a sparing manner
  • Russian: скупо (skupo) — in a sparing manner
  • Russian: скудно (skudno) — in a sparing manner
  • Russian: бережливо (berežlivo) — in a sparing manner
  • Russian: экономно (ekonomno) — in a sparing manner
  • Spanish: con moderación — in a sparing manner
  • Spanish: moderadamente — in a sparing manner
  • Spanish: en pequeñas cantidades — in a sparing manner
  • Swedish: sparsamt — in a sparing manner
Real reading context

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