courtyard
Americannoun
-
courtyards
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of courtyard
Explanation
A courtyard is an area outside a building that's framed and somewhat enclosed by walls. Your friend might ask you to meet her in the courtyard of her apartment complex. In cities, courtyards provide small, private outdoor areas. Courtyards are often nestled between buildings, or tucked away behind them. For nearly as long as people have built houses and buildings, courtyards have existed — although in the past, they were used for keeping animals, cooking over an open fire, and sometimes even sleeping. The word dates from the 1550s, combining court, from the Latin cohors, "enclosed yard," and yard, from a Germanic root also meaning "enclosure."
Vocabulary lists containing courtyard
Guts
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American Street
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Lesson 4
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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:
The property comes complete with a private courtyard and a two-car garage that has an elevator.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
The tomb features an outer courtyard, rock-cut chapel and subterranean burial chambers.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
The police tailed his children to a remote, squalid farmhouse where they stood alone in the courtyard for no apparent reason.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Cross the moat and enter the Tudor courtyard of Anne’s childhood home and we enter not a “whodunit,” but a “who was she?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Our two families cross through our shared courtyard, and we all say goodbye and wish one another a good lunch.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
The Sterling Law Building was designed to evoke England’s historic Inns of Court, complete with soaring stone archways, stained-glass windows, carved oak interiors, tranquil courtyards, and communal spaces intended to foster scholarly community.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
To protect worshippers from the extreme heat, authorities rely on one of the most powerful air conditioning systems in the world to cool the Grand Mosque's courtyards, according to Saudi state television.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
Opening in 2028, the Broad expansion will contain 70% more gallery space, two outdoor courtyards, a live programming space and views of the museum’s art storage vault.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
Public transport connects almost every corner of this tiny country, lush greenery lines the highways and spills out of towering buildings and courtyards, while the pavements are wide, often sheltered, and free of litter.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
Some of the houses have their doors open to the air and I glimpse hens, a cat, a couple of men, in the inner courtyards.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
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.
