Crossword Genius

Spears can be hard to find (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

sparse

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'hard to find' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'spears can be' is the wordplay.
'can be' indicates an anagram.
'spears' is an anagram of 'SPARSE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sparse that I've seen before include "Meagre; scarce" , "Thinly populated" , "Meagre, thin on the ground" , "Thinly dispersed" , "Thinly distributed" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun.
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