light-years

noun

plural of light-year
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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of light-years The black hole sits at the center of the galaxy NGC 1275, located around 225 light-years away, and is the brightest galaxy of the Perseus Cluster. — Robert Lea, Space.com, 12 Oct. 2026 Smart home control, routines, general queries, calendar management, and shopping are light-years ahead of pre-AI Alexa, mostly because the new Alexa understands me better. — Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge, 8 Oct. 2026 Set the scene Etéreo, Auberge Collection (which draws its name from the Spanish word for ‘ethereal’) is only a 30-minute drive from the Cancún airport, but this slice of heaven on the Riviera Maya feels light-years away from the chaos. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Oct. 2026 One high-energy neutrino came from a blazar – a supermassive black hole sucking in matter from its host galaxy and spewing some of it into a jet thousands of light-years long and pointed straight at Earth. — Tyce Deyoung, The Conversation, 6 Oct. 2026 The planet, known as Elias 2-24 b, is roughly the mass of Jupiter and sits about 450 light-years from Earth, according to NASA. — Paloma Chavez, PEOPLE, 25 Sep. 2026 These candidates include TRAPPIST-1e, a planet located about 40 light-years from Earth widely regarded as one of the most promising locations for alien life. — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 23 Sep. 2026 Others are top-of-the-line machines, pointed at distant galaxies millions of light-years away. — Sean MacAday, Sacbee.com, 19 Sep. 2026 The tiny particle originated in an enormous gamma-ray burst two billion light-years away from Earth. — Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 8 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for light-years
  1. worlds
  2. galaxies
Noun
  • Feeling her way through unfamiliar worlds has been something of a lifelong predicament and opportunity for Choi.
    — Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 10 Oct. 2026
  • There still exists in him the hope for a return to his idealistic notion of the box being a portal for dimensional advancement, where diseases could be cured, peace could be achieved, and a techno-utopia might be possible across all worlds.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of worlds
Noun
  • The team was also able to roughly estimate the mass of this feeding cosmic titan, which sits at the heart of the Perseus Cluster, a massive collection of thousands of galaxies.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Detecting and measuring FRBs and their host galaxies can help solve the puzzle, Nanayakkara says.
    — Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of galaxies

Browse Nearby Words

light-year
light-years
likability
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Light-years.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/light-years. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All