backyard
Americannoun
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backyards
plural
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the portion of a lot or building site behind a house, structure, or the like, sometimes fenced, walled, etc.
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a familiar or nearby area; neighborhood.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of backyard
Explanation
The area behind your house, especially if it's covered in grass or other plants, is a backyard. Some people have decks or patios in their backyard. If you live in a city, you'll consider yourself lucky to have a tiny backyard where you can sit on a sunny day. In the suburbs, houses often have identical, fenced-in backyards. And in the country, your backyard might extend for acres. The word is sometimes hyphenated, back-yard, or spelled as two separate words. It's been in use since the 1600s, combining back and yard, from the Old English geard, "enclosure, garden, or court."
Vocabulary lists containing backyard
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Todd Montgomery pops the lid off a small tube and taps out hundreds of mosquitoes into the backyard of a suburban home outside Washington.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Schwimmer said paleontology and other natural, Earth and space sciences can give students at regional universities opportunities to conduct meaningful "backyard research."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
Faraji, its director, told me that besides the program’s bicycle brigade and backyard fish program, which help keep mosquito populations down, his team also sets hundreds of mosquito traps across the city.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Before planting began, Novack took careful measurements across the 3,022 square feet of garden, spanning the front and side yards and backyard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Directly under us, in his backyard, he’d laid out a giant tarp and positioned a video camera so that we could play the drops back and examine them.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
If weekend warriors can’t slay zombies on a dystopian battlefield, at least they can massacre dandelions in their backyards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The county, local agencies, utilities and property owners are in a constant battle with the flora and fauna just beyond fencelines and backyards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
It was also seen swimming in a river, and climbing over fences across backyards.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Folded into the cozy slide-show vibe of Magnason’s home videos and the carefully chosen archival footage, the movie plays like a scrapbook portrait in which home just happens to boast the grandest of backyards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
But most of all, he knew them by their backyards.
From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
