A light year is a measure of distance. It is the distance light travels in a vacuum in one year. Light travels at 186282 miles per second(iirc) so take that number and multiply it by how many seconds are in a year and you have the distance in miles light would have traveld in one year.
Edit: too many per seconds….not enough hoes.
You could compare it to describing a city as being “two hours away”. It looks like a unit of time, but it’s really a unit of distance based on a known speed (in this case typical driving speeds).
The key difference between a light year and a “driving hour” is that the speed of light is precisely known and constant, so a light year is a well-defined distance while a “driving hour” can only ever be an approximate unit depending on traffic and the individual driver.
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