approach light

American  

noun

Aeronautics.

1. one of a series of lights installed along the projected centerline of an airport runway to assist a pilot in aligning the aircraft during the approach to landing at night.

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Etymology

Origin of approach light

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Scerri doesn’t believe the periodic table is seriously threatened by elements like oganesson; he points out that some of the electrons in gold atoms spin at velocities that approach light speed, too.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 27, 2019

Last week, at Newark Airport, the Air Line Pilots Association demonstrated a new approach light system designed to make life easier for the man in the final moments of flight.

From Time Magazine Archive

They form an approach light, elegant, and so lofty that you cannot touch with the hand the stairs above your head. 

From Recollections of the late William Beckford of Fonthill, Wilts and Lansdown, Bath by Lansdown, Henry Venn

An inter-system Empire is hard to maintain, even with ships that approach light speed.

From The Variable Man by Dick, Philip K.