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say it: SPAHR-tuhn
spartan is an adjective and noun meaning "of or relating to or characteristic of Sparta or its people". It carries 5 recorded senses.
of or relating to or characteristic of Sparta or its people
unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment
“a parent severe to the pitch of hostility”
“a hefty six-footer with a rather severe mien”
“a strict disciplinarian”
“a Spartan upbringing”
practicing great self-denial
“Be systematically ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it”
“a desert nomad's austere life”
“a spartan diet”
“a spartan existence”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for spartan come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.