Definition of "sparsely" [sparse•ly]

• In a scattered or sparse manner; scantily; widely apart; thinly. (adverb)

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• "Because of their small numbers - a few hundred - and their remoteness in sparsely inhabited fringes of the Sahara, the far-flung combatants were long regarded as a less potent threat than the main al-Qaeda units inside Algeria, and far less worrisome than Pakistan - and Afghanistan-based militants more directly tied to bin Laden."
• "I think that one of the reasons why sex workers typically live at brothels while they work there is because they are way out in sparsely populated areas, so people come in from other places to work."
• "They are located throughout the state, some in sparsely populated areas — to connect them with a single meandering high speed line would be stupid (let me hasten to say that DTM does not propose this — the rail service DTM proposes serves only select parts of the state, I suppose)."