Milky Way

noun

1

: a broad luminous irregular band of light that stretches completely around the celestial sphere and is caused by the light of myriads of faint stars

2

: milky way galaxy

Examples of Milky Way in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Every galaxy like our own Milky Way produces a handful of supernovae every century, with about one-third of them being the Type 1a variety. —Popular Mechanics, 18 Apr. 2023

More Revelations With the velocity and spectrometry measurements already in hand for 1.5 million Milky Way stars, Chandra cast his gaze to related theories that could be checked. —Quanta Magazine, 29 Mar. 2023

Every year, a major galaxy like our Milky Way manufactures a handful of new stars, with each new generation carrying the torch from the one before. —Popular Mechanics, 7 Mar. 2023

This stellar nursery is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to our own Milky Way at a distance of 160,000 light-years. —Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 19 Oct. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

Milky Way

noun

1

: a broad band of light that stretches across the sky and is caused by the light of a very great number of faint stars

2

: milky way galaxy