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
What’s intriguing though is that these galaxies are over 50 million light-years away.
—
Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 3 May 2026
The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, lies about 4.37 light-years away.
—New Atlas, 29 Apr. 2026
Astronomers can use telescopes to find specific molecules in the atmospheres of neighboring planets, in nebulae – clouds of interstellar dust and gas – hundreds or thousands of light-years away, or in galaxies beyond the far reaches of the Milky Way.
—Olivia Harper Wilkins, The Conversation, 27 Apr. 2026
The nebula is a star-forming region located about 5,000 light-years from Earth.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 27 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for light-year
Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 3 May 2026
The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, lies about 4.37 light-years away.
—New Atlas, 29 Apr. 2026
Astronomers can use telescopes to find specific molecules in the atmospheres of neighboring planets, in nebulae – clouds of interstellar dust and gas – hundreds or thousands of light-years away, or in galaxies beyond the far reaches of the Milky Way.
—Olivia Harper Wilkins, The Conversation, 27 Apr. 2026
The nebula is a star-forming region located about 5,000 light-years from Earth.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 27 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for light-year
Recent Examples of Synonyms for light-year
Noun
-
Imagine an alternate world in which Nixon had instead been free to destroy those records.—
Ruth Marcus,
New Yorker,
14 May 2026
-
There’s a world where that actually helps reduce pressure and expectations on the filmmakers, which is often the challenge with indies.—
Matt Donnelly,
Variety,
13 May 2026
Noun
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These features allow astronomers to examine how stars are born, evolve, and eventually die, both in Messier 77 and in other similar galaxies across the universe.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
10 May 2026
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To get to the bottom of things, though, the team behind the new research examined the host galaxies and environments of LFBOTs to try to pin down what the progenitors of these explosive events could really be.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
8 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Light-year.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/light-year. Accessed 16 May. 2026.
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