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
They were subsequently declared ineligible for that year's Best Original Score Oscar — remarkable considering this was, by several hundred light-years, the most original score out there.
—
Richard Edwards, Space.com, 31 Mar. 2026
An actual cosmic void — which can indeed be a billion light-years (or more) across — has nothing to do with dark gas clouds and Bok globules, which are small, nearby clouds of light-blocking matter, particularly at optical wavelengths.
—Big Think, 26 Mar. 2026
Right now the Republican Party is light-years away from that, and those who cherish conservatism should say so.
—Peter Wehner, The Atlantic, 23 Mar. 2026
Imagine waking up, groggy and bearded, on a space ship light-years from Earth.
—Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 22 Mar. 2026
Located around 40 light-years from Earth, TRAPPIST-1 d, e, f, and g all orbit their red dwarf star at distances that hypothetically could support liquid water.
—Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026
The planet in question, L 98-59 d, sits roughly 35 light-years away.
—Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 16 Mar. 2026
The picture released Wednesday by the European Southern Observatory zeroes in on a region of cold cosmic gases more than 650 light-years across.
—Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2026
Richard Edwards, Space.com, 31 Mar. 2026
An actual cosmic void — which can indeed be a billion light-years (or more) across — has nothing to do with dark gas clouds and Bok globules, which are small, nearby clouds of light-blocking matter, particularly at optical wavelengths.
—Big Think, 26 Mar. 2026
Right now the Republican Party is light-years away from that, and those who cherish conservatism should say so.
—Peter Wehner, The Atlantic, 23 Mar. 2026
Imagine waking up, groggy and bearded, on a space ship light-years from Earth.
—Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 22 Mar. 2026
Located around 40 light-years from Earth, TRAPPIST-1 d, e, f, and g all orbit their red dwarf star at distances that hypothetically could support liquid water.
—Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026
The planet in question, L 98-59 d, sits roughly 35 light-years away.
—Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 16 Mar. 2026
The picture released Wednesday by the European Southern Observatory zeroes in on a region of cold cosmic gases more than 650 light-years across.
—Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for light-years
Noun
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Virtual reality was once touted as the next big frontier for gaming, promising to bring players into immersive worlds.—
Gieson Cacho,
Mercury News,
26 Mar. 2026
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Interestingly, these worlds may be tidally locked to their star, with permanent day and night sides.—
Stefanie Waldek,
Space.com,
26 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The deep space image captures a fleeting moment in a titanic struggle that has lasted hundreds of millions of years, as the gravitational influence of the galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 pulls at one another to create chaos on a truly cosmic scale.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
28 Mar. 2026
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Understanding these building blocks is key to reconstructing how the universe evolved from the fiery hot plasma that permeated space after the Big Bang to the structured web of galaxies observed today.—
Mariangela Lisanti,
Twin Cities,
27 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Light-years.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/light-years. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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