occasional vs sparse

occasional

adj
  • Occurring or appearing irregularly from time to time, but not often. 

  • Created for a specific occasion. 

  • Acting in the indicated role from time to time. 

  • Intended for use as the occasion requires. 

noun
  • A person who does something only occasionally. 

sparse

adj
  • Having widely spaced intervals. 

  • Having few nonzero elements 

  • Not dense; meager; scanty 

How often have the words occasional and sparse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )