scattered vs sparse

scattered

adj
  • Seemingly randomly distributed. 

  • Covering three eighths to four eighths of the sky. 

  • Dispersed, spread apart into disunited units. 

  • Affecting 30 percent to 50 percent of a forecast zone. 

sparse

adj
  • Having widely spaced intervals. 

  • Having few nonzero elements 

  • Not dense; meager; scanty 

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