sparing
/ˈspɛəɹɪŋ/
sparing adjective: prudent and restrained in the use of resources; careful, economical or frugal. Also the present participle and gerund of spare.
Adjective
sparing (comparative more sparing, superlative most sparing)
- Prudent and restrained in the use of resources; careful, economical or frugal.
- Synonyms:
- abstemious, canny, chary, moderate, cheap, close with a buck, economic, economical, frugal, provident
Noun
sparing (plural sparings)
- The act by which something or someone is spared.
- The sparings of my frugality have, however, in a sufficient degree, augmented my originally scanty patrimony; […]1830, Mrs. Gore (Catherine Grace Frances), The Manners of the Day, volume 2, page 322
Also used as
sparing is also the present participle and gerund of spare.
Examples of sparing in a sentence
- The junior can offer to do the voxes, gaining experience and sparing the senior journalist the trouble.
- Augustine are both sparing in the employment of the device of pleonasm.
- We are thankful to the author for sparing us learned historical disquisitions about the antiquity of Egypt.
Synonyms of sparing
10 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of sparing
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more sparing |
| superlative | most sparing |
| Noun | |
| plural | sparings |
Words formed from sparing
Phrases with sparing
Questions about sparing
- What does sparing mean?
- Sparing means prudent and restrained in the use of resources; careful, economical or frugal.
- What part of speech is sparing?
- Sparing can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce sparing?
- Sparing is pronounced /ˈspɛəɹɪŋ/.
Words near sparing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sparing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “sparing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sparing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.