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the Milky Way

noun

1
: a broad band of light that can be seen in the night sky and that is caused by the light of a very large number of faint stars
2
: the galaxy in which we live that contains the stars that make up the Milky Way

Examples of the Milky Way in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Those interactions—particularly with the Milky Way and the neighboring Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) — have pulled at its structure, warping its disk and rearranging its stars and gas. Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 3 Dec. 2025 Our sun is a perfectly ordinary star, residing in a perfectly ordinary galaxy, out in the suburban fringes of one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms. Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 1 Dec. 2025 And sometimes, on moonless nights when the sky is especially dark and the air is crystal clear — as is often the case on a cold winter night — the Milky Way can be admired in all its glory. John Meyer, Denver Post, 28 Nov. 2025 Totani’s study used observations from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope aimed near the heart of the Milky Way. Denise Chow, NBC news, 25 Nov. 2025 See All Example Sentences for the Milky Way

Cite this Entry

“The Milky Way.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20Milky%20Way. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.

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