Spares, sadly, are scarce (6)

I believe the answer is:

sparse

'are scarce' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'spares sadly' is the wordplay.
'sadly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'spares' is an anagram of 'SPARSE'.

(Other definitions for sparse that I've seen before include "Thinly populated" , "Thinly-spread" , "In short supply" , "Thinly spread" , "not packed together" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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