Milky Way

American  

[mil-kee wey] / ˈmɪl ki ˈweɪ /

noun

Astronomy.

1. the spiral galaxy containing our solar system: with the naked eye it appears as a faint luminous band stretching across the heavens, composed of approximately a trillion stars, most of which are too distant to be seen individually.

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Milky Way British  

noun

1. the diffuse band of light stretching across the night sky that consists of millions of faint stars, nebulae, etc, within our Galaxy

2. another name for the Galaxy

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Milky Way Scientific  

/ mĭl′kē /

1. The spiral galaxy that contains our solar system. Made up of an estimated two hundred billion stars or more, it is seen from Earth as an irregular band of hazy light across the night sky. The solar system is located in one of the revolving spiral arms, about 50 light-years north of the galactic plane and some 27,700 light-years from the galaxy's center, which lies in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. It takes approximately 250 million years for the solar system to orbit the galactic center, which is believed to contain a massive black hole. The Milky Way measures about 100,000 light-years in diameter and is the second largest galaxy, after the Andromeda Galaxy, in the cluster known as the Local Group.

2. See also spiral galaxy

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Milky Way Cultural  

1. The galaxy to which our sun belongs.

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Discover More

The Milky Way is also the swath of light in the night sky produced by the other stars in the galaxy.

Etymology

Origin of Milky Way

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, translation of Latin via lactea; galaxy

Example Sentences

Studying Uranus could also help scientists better understand similar planets beyond our solar system, since ice giants appear to be common throughout the Milky Way.

From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2026

The Milky Way itself may have once gone through a quasar phase, although it is not active today.

From Science Daily • Mar. 30, 2026

The Crab Pulsar sits at the center of the Crab Nebula in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, about 6,500 light-years from Earth.

From Science Daily • Mar. 28, 2026

"We want to understand how we got here. How did our own Milky Way form, and how did we end up breathing the oxygen that we're breathing right now?"

From Science Daily • Mar. 23, 2026

The Arecibo Observatory could communicate with an identical radio telescope on a planet 15,000 light-years away, halfway to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, if we knew precisely where to point it.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan