1
as in preserved
to use or give out in stingy amounts
I'll have a banana split—and don't spare the whipped cream
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in saved
to avoid unnecessary waste or expense
she had grown up during the Great Depression, so she was no stranger to sparing
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of spared
But thanks to its size and location – spread out over 1,700 miles across the Pacific – Hawaii was once again spared a direct landfall.
—
Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 11 Sep. 2025
There are, of course, some groups that will be happy with the MAHA strategy report, including those in the food industry who were spared the regulation that the initial report seemed to hint was coming.
—Alana Semuels, Time, 9 Sep. 2025
Dixon’s criminal case was further along and he was being held in a county jail, which likely spared him his brother’s fate.
—Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
For a Burton production, no small detail was spared.
—Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 6 Sep. 2025
Congregant Rita Cartwright is convinced the building was otherwise spared from devastation because a prayer group at the church recently returned from hiatus.
—Jose R. Gonzalez, AZCentral.com, 4 Sep. 2025
Their land had been sacrificed so others’ could be spared.
—Molly Parker, ProPublica, 4 Sep. 2025
But wagers of $50 or more on single events will be spared the fee.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 3 Sep. 2025
There is no debate that the routine childhood vaccine schedules have spared generations of my family and your family from devastating and, at times, deadly diseases, including polio, measles, and other terrible diseases.
—Bernadette Boden Albala, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 11 Sep. 2025
There are, of course, some groups that will be happy with the MAHA strategy report, including those in the food industry who were spared the regulation that the initial report seemed to hint was coming.
—Alana Semuels, Time, 9 Sep. 2025
Dixon’s criminal case was further along and he was being held in a county jail, which likely spared him his brother’s fate.
—Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
For a Burton production, no small detail was spared.
—Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 6 Sep. 2025
Congregant Rita Cartwright is convinced the building was otherwise spared from devastation because a prayer group at the church recently returned from hiatus.
—Jose R. Gonzalez, AZCentral.com, 4 Sep. 2025
Their land had been sacrificed so others’ could be spared.
—Molly Parker, ProPublica, 4 Sep. 2025
But wagers of $50 or more on single events will be spared the fee.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 3 Sep. 2025
There is no debate that the routine childhood vaccine schedules have spared generations of my family and your family from devastating and, at times, deadly diseases, including polio, measles, and other terrible diseases.
—Bernadette Boden Albala, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spared
Verb
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The lobby has been carefully preserved to maintain its historical integrity with restoration efforts focusing on keeping the original look including the ceiling and tiles, which have been restored to their original form.—
Michelle F. Solomon,
Miami Herald,
13 Sep. 2025
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More to Explore By documenting lushly hirsute Japanese officials alongside their beardless counterparts, portraiture preserved a photographic record of colonial subjects’ visibly inferior status.—
H.M.A. Leow,
JSTOR Daily,
13 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Electronics Finds like televisions, vintage type writers, dial phones, and vintage radios may have been saved by the homeowners for the sake of nostalgia, but might not actually work anymore.—
Hallie Milstein,
Southern Living,
12 Sep. 2025
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Because everything was kept in one place, when the user saved the system state to a floppy disk, their entire workspace was frozen and stored in its entirety.—
Cameron Kaiser,
ArsTechnica,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Emory’s shuttles have been running on biodiesel fuel since 2006, and the campus has conserved fuel energy by recycling old cooking oil used in the dining halls.—
Gina Park,
CNN Money,
27 Aug. 2025
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These are sugar molecules that are structurally conserved across unrelated viral families and have until now remained an untapped target for antiviral drug development.—
Hannah Millington,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Spared.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spared. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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