Word.ws English Dictionary

light cones

light cones is the plural of light cone.

Meaning of light cone

Noun

light cone (plural light cones)

  1. (relativity) In special relativity, the pattern describing the temporal evolution of a flash of light in Minkowski spacetime. This is modeled in 3-space using the two horizontal axes as spatial dimensions, while the vertical axis is time.
    • This gives the future light cone of the event. Similarly, you can define the past light cone—as the history of a spherical shell of light converging in on the event. All these spatial spheres, past and future, represent cross-sections through the space–time light cone, […]1998, Hermann Bondi, Miranda Weston-Smith, editors, The Universe Unfolding, Clarendon Press, page 384
  2. (broadly, figuratively) A (realized or imagined) data visualization of possible sets of future outcomes that is analogous to such a cone.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see light, cone.

Questions about light cones

What is light cones the plural of?
Light cones is the plural of light cone.

Words near light cones in the dictionary

  1. light clay
  2. light clock
  3. light clocks
  4. light come, light go
  5. light cone
  6. light cones
  7. light corn syrup
  8. light cream
  9. light cruiser
  10. light cruisers
  11. light curve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: light cones (page history and authors); light cone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “light cones.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/light_cones. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.