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light-second.

Noun
Sci-FiSettingTechnical
MEANING

The distance light travels through a vacuum in one second, equal to 299,792,458 meters.

Use it for

near-space separation; communication delay over short astronomical distances; distance distinguished from the second as a time unit

Words that belong together

  • several light-seconds
  • a light-second of distance

On the page

The relay was several light-seconds from the vessel.
A light-second of distance made an immediate exchange impossible without the story’s invented exception.

Related words

light-travel distance in one secondlight second (spelling variant)signal delay
Word forms
Base
light-second

Explore related collections

Science-fiction vocabulary

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular light-second; plural light-seconds. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.

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