lightspeed
nounEtymology From light + speed.
1
The speed of light (in vacuum unless another medium is specified).
- If we're going to a world a hundred light-years from here at near lightspeed, we spend according to our own perceptions, only a few minutes doing so and arrive only a few minutes older.1994, Ursula K. Le Guin, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, Victor Gollancz (UK), published 1996, →ISBN, page 7:
- He paused, then finished, “with the drive from the Linz, he can do over 500 lightspeeds to meet us.2005, W. Strawn Douglas, Oracle And Other Stories, page 134:
2
Colloquial, Figuratively An extremely fast speed.
- In recent years, other activist terms have followed light-speed trajectories. The term “Latinx” overtook academic institutions and briefly became fashionable in the media, still prevalent in some influential publications, like The New Yorker, even though only 3 percent of Hispanics (or Latinos, if you prefer) use it.2022 October 23, Pamela Paul, “Let’s Say Gay”, in The New York Times:
- Derived terms
- lightspeed lag