light year

Definition

A unit of length (abbreviation ly; equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres (10¹⁶ metres)) equal to the distance light travels in one Julian year; used to measure extremely large distances.

Example Sentences

• "We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year."
• "The marathon runner in the lead is light years ahead of the one at the back."
• "Now that they've graduated, they'll have to make some mature decisions in their future. One of which? Settling on their signature scent that is lightyears away from the $10 body spray they had throughout school."

Related Words