The Milky Way is the pale strip of light consisting of many stars that you can see stretched across the sky at night.
Milky Way in British English
noun
the Milky Way
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
Word origin
C14: translation of Latin via lactea
Milky Way in American English
thethe spiral galaxy containing our sun: seen from the earth as a broad, faintly luminous band of stars and interstellar gas arching across the night sky, with the constellation Sagittarius marking the direction to its center
Word origin
transl. of L via lactea, transl. of Gr galaxias kyklos: see galaxy
Examples of 'Milky Way' in a sentence
Milky Way
She'd never seen so many stars, nor seen the Milky Way so clearly; a wide, irregular band of studded sky.
Clive Barker GALILEE (2001)
The angel looked at him then, with eyes older than the Milky Way.
Neil Gaiman NEVERWHERE (2001)
In other languages
Milky Way
British English: Milky Way NOUN
the Milky WayThe Milky Way is the pale strip of light consisting of many stars that you can see stretched across the sky at night.