as in world
a huge physical or conceptual distance
my sister and I are close in age, but personality-wise, there are light-years between us
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Recent Examples of light-year
Moisturizer’s confidence level feels light-years away from its predecessor — and starts with their respective album artwork.
—
Sophie Williams, Billboard, 10 Oct. 2025
Although there are many others, these five stars are all located within a mere 12 light-years of Earth.
—Ethan Siegel, Big Think, 7 Oct. 2025
So the light has actually had to travel much farther than 12 billion light-years to get to us.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 2 Oct. 2025
The Large Magellanic Cloud lies about 160,000 light-years from Earth, the Small Magellanic Cloud about 200,000 light-years away.
—IEEE Spectrum, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for light-year
Sophie Williams, Billboard, 10 Oct. 2025
Although there are many others, these five stars are all located within a mere 12 light-years of Earth.
—Ethan Siegel, Big Think, 7 Oct. 2025
So the light has actually had to travel much farther than 12 billion light-years to get to us.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 2 Oct. 2025
The Large Magellanic Cloud lies about 160,000 light-years from Earth, the Small Magellanic Cloud about 200,000 light-years away.
—IEEE Spectrum, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for light-year
Recent Examples of Synonyms for light-year
Noun
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Yet, even in 2025—eighteen years after the publication of the last book in the series, fourteen years after the release of its last film, and several years after Rowling first announced her gender-critical politics—the popularity of Potter’s magical world endures.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
12 Oct. 2025
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The seemingly low-risk, high-reward form of gambling has taken the sports betting world by storm.—
Sasha Rogelberg,
Fortune,
11 Oct. 2025
Noun
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This notch can only be produced by another object between the background and foreground galaxies and with a mass a million times greater than our sun.—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
13 Oct. 2025
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There are more human cells in your body than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy!—
Regina G. Barber,
NPR,
13 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Light-year.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/light-year. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.
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