lightspeed

plural lightspeeds · alternative light speed

1. countableuncountableThe speed of light (in vacuum unless another medium is specified).

   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

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: speed of light

2. colloquialcountablefigurativelyuncountableAn extremely fast speed.

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: speed of light