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
The bubble-like form of the Garlic Nebula lies within the Milky Way some 9,132 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.
—
Anthony Wood, Space.com, 24 Oct. 2025
Located about 162 light-years away from Earth, β CMi is encompassed by a disk of hydrogen moving incredibly fast.
—Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 22 Oct. 2025
However, while real stars are massive, glowing balls of gas located light-years away from Earth, meteors are usually just tiny bits of rock or dust—often no bigger than a grain of sand—that come from comets or asteroids.
—Hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
That fuzzy little patch is our Milky Way Galaxy’s next-door neighbor, over 2 million light-years away, with just one light year equaling almost 6 trillion miles.
—Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 19 Oct. 2025
The jets can flow for hundreds of thousands of light-years in some cases, extending well outside the galaxy itself.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2025
The citizen science team also spotted two additional odd radio circles in two different galaxies, including one located at the end of a powerful jet that has a sharp curve, resulting in a radio ring about 100,000 light-years wide.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2025
Moisturizer’s confidence level feels light-years away from its predecessor — and starts with their respective album artwork.
—Sophie Williams, Billboard, 10 Oct. 2025
Anthony Wood, Space.com, 24 Oct. 2025
Located about 162 light-years away from Earth, β CMi is encompassed by a disk of hydrogen moving incredibly fast.
—Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 22 Oct. 2025
However, while real stars are massive, glowing balls of gas located light-years away from Earth, meteors are usually just tiny bits of rock or dust—often no bigger than a grain of sand—that come from comets or asteroids.
—Hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
That fuzzy little patch is our Milky Way Galaxy’s next-door neighbor, over 2 million light-years away, with just one light year equaling almost 6 trillion miles.
—Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 19 Oct. 2025
The jets can flow for hundreds of thousands of light-years in some cases, extending well outside the galaxy itself.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2025
The citizen science team also spotted two additional odd radio circles in two different galaxies, including one located at the end of a powerful jet that has a sharp curve, resulting in a radio ring about 100,000 light-years wide.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2025
Moisturizer’s confidence level feels light-years away from its predecessor — and starts with their respective album artwork.
—Sophie Williams, Billboard, 10 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for light-years
Noun
-
By replicating the visual fidelity of reality, retina E-paper brings science closer to creating virtual worlds that the human eye cannot distinguish from the real one.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
24 Oct. 2025
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Welcome to Derry Stephen King's worlds collide with HBO's new horror series, a prequel to the It films.—
EW Staff,
Entertainment Weekly,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The universe is overwhelmingly made of matter, which is responsible for visible structures ranging from atoms to galaxies, and quarks to quasars.—
Chris Young,
Interesting Engineering,
23 Oct. 2025
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This behavior will lead to a spectrum of temperature imperfections in the Big Bang’s leftover glow, and eventually will form the seeds of structure that grow into stars, galaxies, and the cosmic web.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
23 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Light-years.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/light-years. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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