[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

spartan \spar"tan\, a. l. spartanus.
   of or pertaining to sparta, especially to ancient sparta;
   hence, hardy; undaunted; as, spartan souls; spartan bravey.
   -- n. a native or inhabitant of sparta; figuratively, a
   person of great courage and fortitude.
   1913 webster
   1913 webster

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

spartan
     adj 1: of or relating to or characteristic of sparta or its people
     2: resolute in the face of pain or danger or adversity;
        "spartan courage"
     3: unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment; "a
        parent severe to the pitch of hostility"- h.g.wells; "a
        hefty six-footer with a rather severe mien"; "a strict
        disciplinarian"; "a spartan upbringing" syn: severe, strict
     4: practicing great self-denial; "be systematically
        ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you
        would rather not do it"- william james; "a desert nomad's
        austere life"; "a spartan diet"; "a spartan existence"
        syn: ascetic, ascetical, austere
     n : a resident of sparta
see also:
severe strict ascetic ascetical austere 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

182 moby thesaurus words for "spartan":
   apostolic, encratic, laconian, lenten, pythagorean, rechabite,
   shaker, spartanic, stoic, abbreviated, abridged, abstemious,
   abstinent, accepting, aposiopestic, armed with patience, ascetic,
   astringent, austere, authoritarian, bald, bare, brief, brusque,
   candid, celibate, chaste, clam, clipped, close, common,
   commonplace, compact, compendious, compressed, concise, condensed,
   continent, contracted, controlled, crisp, curt, cut, demanding,
   direct, disciplined, docked, dour, dry, dull, dwarfed, dwarfish,
   elliptic, endurant, enduring, epigrammatic, exacting, exigent,
   exiguous, forbearing, frank, frugal, fruitarian, gnomic, grim,
   hard, harsh, homely, homespun, impoverished, indulgent, inornate,
   jejune, laconic, lean, lenient, limited, long-suffering,
   longanimous, man of iron, matter-of-fact, meager, mean, meticulous,
   miserly, narrow, natural, neat, nephalistic, niggardly,
   on the wagon, open, paltry, parsimonious, patient, patient as job,
   persevering, philosophical, pithy, plain, plain-speaking,
   plain-spoken, pointed, poor, prosaic, prosing, prosy, pruned, puny,
   pure, reserved, rigid, rigorous, rugged, rustic, scant, scanty,
   scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, self-controlled, self-denying,
   sententious, severe, sexually abstinent, short, short and sweet,
   shortened, simple, simple-speaking, skimp, skimpy, slender, slight,
   slim, small, sober, spare, sparing, stark, starvation, stern,
   stingy, stinted, stoic, straightforward, straitened, strict,
   stringent, stunted, subsistence, succinct, summary, sworn off,
   synopsized, taciturn, teetotal, terse, thin, tight, to the point,
   tolerant, tolerating, tolerative, tough, truncated, unadorned,
   unaffected, understanding, unelaborate, unfancy, unfussy,
   unimaginative, unnourishing, unnutritious, unornate, unpoetical,
   unsparing, unvarnished, vegetarian, watered, watery

Spartan >> S Words
Spartan, definition of term: Spartan
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