MEANING
1. Plain, lean, or reduced to very few elements.
2. Available beyond what is currently needed, or kept for replacement.
3. To protect someone from harm or save them from an unwanted experience.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- spare prose
- spare interior
On the page
The spare prose leaves the reader to supply the emotion.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Word forms
- Base
- spare
- Past tense
- spared
- Past participle
- spared
- Present participle
- sparing
Usage notes
Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more spare; superlative most spare when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: spares.
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