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
The featherweight pair — orbiting a star 1,110 light-years away — are the biggest exoplanets found to have less density than cotton candy.
—
Marcia Dunn,
The Orlando Sentinel,
25 June 2026
Given its distance of 3,000 light-years from the solar system, what is about to happen actually occurred 3,000 years ago, and the light is about to reach Earth.
—
Jamie Carter,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2026
The star itself is called GJ 436, a red dwarf half the mass of the Sun that resides about 30 light-years from Earth.
—
John Timmer,
ArsTechnica,
25 June 2026
While Earth's storms can last hours or days, these cosmic disturbances can unfold over millions of years and span thousands of light-years.
—
Brandi D. Addison,
USA Today,
23 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for light-year
Marcia Dunn,
The Orlando Sentinel,
25 June 2026
Given its distance of 3,000 light-years from the solar system, what is about to happen actually occurred 3,000 years ago, and the light is about to reach Earth.
—
Jamie Carter,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2026
The star itself is called GJ 436, a red dwarf half the mass of the Sun that resides about 30 light-years from Earth.
—
John Timmer,
ArsTechnica,
25 June 2026
While Earth's storms can last hours or days, these cosmic disturbances can unfold over millions of years and span thousands of light-years.
—
Brandi D. Addison,
USA Today,
23 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for light-year
Recent Examples of Synonyms for light-year
Noun
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The Castro family has been linked, through GAESA chiefly, to a lucrative world of hotels, banks, retail monopolies, foreign-currency businesses, foreign private compounds and offshore accounts.
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Hiltz finished seventh in the 1,500 meters at the 2024 Paris Olympics and fifth in the same race at the 2025 world championships in Tokyo.
Noun
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With this capability, Rubin can reveal details of the cosmos across an enormous range of scales, from distant galaxies, to individual stars, to the wispy clouds of dust spread throughout our galaxy.
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This nebula, found in our own Milky Way galaxy, is a vast region of gas and dust surrounding a dense concentration of massive stars.
Cite this Entry
“Light-year.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/light-year. Accessed 6 Jul. 2026.
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