as in worlds
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-years
Your rocket ship will have already traveled more than 10 light-years (but less than 15), but someone back on Earth will have experienced more than 20 years of time passing.
—
Big Think, 12 Mar. 2026
The merger occurred around 910 million light-years away, resulting in the creation of a daughter black hole with around 13 times the mass of the sun.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 11 Mar. 2026
Sprawling galaxies and cosmic structures that expand for light-years have often been the focus of the observatory’s infrared gaze, but so have distant, faint objects.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 10 Mar. 2026
Stars are gigantic fusion reactors light-years away that do not shape our personalities or life events.
—Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 8 Mar. 2026
Big Think, 12 Mar. 2026
The merger occurred around 910 million light-years away, resulting in the creation of a daughter black hole with around 13 times the mass of the sun.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 11 Mar. 2026
Sprawling galaxies and cosmic structures that expand for light-years have often been the focus of the observatory’s infrared gaze, but so have distant, faint objects.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 10 Mar. 2026
Stars are gigantic fusion reactors light-years away that do not shape our personalities or life events.
—Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 8 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for light-years
Noun
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Content oversight provided by Studio 1847 Some artists work within a genre, but Omen Kaine builds worlds.—
Ascend Agency,
New York Daily News,
12 Mar. 2026
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So confident that India was the best of all worlds!—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Of course, there are also regions that have hot, ionized material in the way, such as around active galaxies or in passing through galaxy clusters that have hot, X-ray emitting intracluster mediums.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
6 Mar. 2026
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By tracking that glow, scientists can trace not just bright galaxies but also the diffuse gas that surrounds and connects them.—
Samantha Mathewson,
Space.com,
5 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Light-years.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/light-years. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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