light year
English
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
light year
- /ˈlaɪt.jɪə/ UK
- /ˈlaɪt.jɪɹ/ US
- /ˈläːt.jøː/ General South African
- /ˈlaɪt.jɜː/ Wales
noun light years · ly · lightyear · light-year
- A unit of length used to measure extremely large distances, equal to approximately 9.46 trillion kilometres 10 trillion kilometres (10¹⁶ metres), equivalent to the distance light travels in one Julian year. 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.
- A very long way. The marathon runner in the lead is light years ahead of the one at the back.
- A very long time. Some of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions were light years ahead of their time.
Translations
Every language
noun unit of astronomical distance
| Español | año luz |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 광년 gwangnyeon |
| 日本語 | 光年 kōnen |
| 中文 | 光年 guāngnián |
| हिन्दी | प्रकाशवर्ष prakāśvarṣ |
| Kiswahili | mwaka wa nuru |
| Português | ano-luz |
| Français | année-lumière |
| Deutsch | Lichtjahr |
| Italiano | anno luce |
| Ελληνικά | έτος φωτός étos fotós |
| Română | an-lumină |
| Русский | светово́й год svetovój god |
| Tiếng Việt | năm ánh sáng |
| العربية | سَنَة ضَوْئِيَّة sana ḍawʔiyya |
| עברית | שנת אור |
noun a very long way
| 中文 | 遙遙領先 /遥遥领先 yáoyáolǐngxiān |
|---|---|
| Italiano | anni luce |
Talk about this word "light year." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/light%20year. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. light year. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/light%20year "light year." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/light%20year.
Cite this
MLA
APA
Chicago
BibTeX
@misc{light_year_2026,
title = {light year},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/light%20year},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
