English Dictionary |
LIGHT YEAR
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Dictionary entry overview: What does light year mean?
• LIGHT YEAR (noun)
The noun LIGHT YEAR has 1 sense:
1. the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1 year; 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers
Familiarity information: LIGHT YEAR used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
The distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1 year; 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Synonyms:
light-year; light year
Hypernyms ("light year" is a kind of...):
astronomy unit (a linear unit used for astronomical distances)
Meronyms (parts of "light year"):
light hour (the distance light travels in a vacuum in one hour; approximately one billion kilometers)
light minute (the distance light travels in a vacuum in one minute; approximately 18 million kilometers)
light second (the distance light travels in a vacuum in one second; approximately 300,000 kilometers)
Context examples
This corresponds to less than one hundredth of a light year.
(Giant Black Hole Pair Photobombs Andromeda Galaxy, NASA)
One light year is equal to 63239.7 astronomical units, 0.3066 parsecs, 5.88E12 miles, or 9.460528405E15 meters.
(Light-Year, NCI Thesaurus)
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