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• yard
  yard

  noun

  a common unit of linear measure in English-speaking countries, equal to 3 feet or 36 inches, and equivalent to 0.9144 meter.
• Yard
  Yard

  noun

  short for Scotland Yard

yard

¹ American  

[yahrd] / jɑrd /

noun

1. a common unit of linear measure in English-speaking countries, equal to 3 feet or 36 inches, and equivalent to 0.9144 meter.

2. Nautical. a long spar, supported more or less at its center, to which the head of a square sail, lateen sail, or lugsail is bent.

3. yard-of-ale.

4. Informal. a large quantity or extent.

5. Slang. one hundred or, usually, one thousand dollars.

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idioms

1. the whole nine yards,

   1. everything that is pertinent, appropriate, or available.

   2. in all ways; in every respect; all the way.

      If you want to run for mayor, I'll be with you the whole nine yards.

yard ² American  

[yahrd] / jɑrd /

noun

1. the ground that immediately adjoins or surrounds a house, public building, or other structure.

2. an enclosed area outdoors, often paved and surrounded by or adjacent to a building; court.

3. ballpark.

   It’s been a long road trip for the Mariners, and they’ll be glad to get back to their own yard on Tuesday.

4. an outdoor enclosure designed for the exercise of students, inmates, etc..

   a prison yard.

5. an outdoor space surrounded by a group of buildings, as on a college campus.

6. a pen or other enclosure for livestock.

7. an enclosure within which any work or business is carried on (often used in combination).

   navy yard; a brickyard.

8. an outside area used for storage, assembly, or the like.

9. Railroads. a system of parallel tracks, crossovers, switches, etc., where cars are switched and made up into trains and where cars, locomotives, and other rolling stock are kept when not in use or when awaiting repairs.

10. a piece of ground set aside for cultivation; garden; field.

11. the winter pasture or browsing ground of moose and deer.

12. British. the Yard, Scotland Yard.

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verb (used with object)

• yards,
  present (3rd person singular)
• yarded,
  past participle,  past
• yarding
  present participle

1. to put into, enclose, or store in a yard.

idioms

1. go yard, to hit a home run.

   It looks as if he may go yard with this one—and he does, just inches from the foul pole!

yard ¹ British  

/ jɑːd /

noun

1. a piece of enclosed ground, usually either paved or laid with concrete and often adjoining or surrounded by a building or buildings

2. 1. an enclosed or open area used for some commercial activity, for storage, etc

      a railway yard

   2. ( in combination )

      a brickyard

      a shipyard

3. a US and Canadian word for garden

4. an area having a network of railway tracks and sidings, used for storing rolling stock, making up trains, etc

5. the winter pasture of deer, moose, and similar animals

6. an enclosed area used to draw off part of a herd, etc

7. short for saleyard stockyard

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verb

1. to draft (animals), esp to a saleyard

Yard ² British  

/ jɑːd /

noun

1. informal short for Scotland Yard

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yard ³ British  

/ jɑːd /

noun

1. yd. a unit of length equal to 3 feet and defined in 1963 as exactly 0.9144 metre

2. a cylindrical wooden or hollow metal spar, tapered at the ends, slung from a mast of a square-rigged or lateen-rigged vessel and used for suspending a sail

3. short for yardstick

4. informal to make a great effort to achieve an end

5. informal everything that is required; the whole thing

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yard Scientific  

/ yärd /

1. A unit of length in the US Customary System equal to 3 feet or 36 inches (0.91 meter).

2. See Table at measurement

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yard More Idioms  

1. see all wool and a yard wide; in one's own back yard; whole nine yards.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• yarding
  present
• yarded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• yard
  simple
• yards
  simple
• have yarded
  perfect
• has yarded
  perfect
• am yarding
  progressive
• are yarding
  progressive
• is yarding
  progressive
• have been yarding
  perfect progressive
• has been yarding
  perfect progressive

Past

• yarded
  simple
• had yarded
  perfect
• was yarding
  progressive
• were yarding
  progressive
• had been yarding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will yard
  simple
• will have yarded
  perfect
• will be yarding
  progressive
• will have been yarding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of yard¹

First recorded before 950; Middle English yerd(e), yard(e) “stick, pole, rod,” Old English gird, gierd, gerd “bough, staff, rod”; cognate with Dutch gard, German Gerte “rod, twig”

Origin of yard²

First recorded before 900; Middle English yerd(e), yard(e), Old English geard “enclosure”; cognate with Dutch gaard “garden,” Old Norse garthr “yard,” Gothic gards “house,” Latin hortus “garden,” Greek chórtos “enclosure, court,” Old Irish gort “field,” Slavic (Polish) gród “castle, town”; akin to garden, garth ( def. )

Explanation

The grassy area right outside a house is a yard. A yard is often surrounded by a fence or marked by shrubs or other plants. As a unit of measurement, a yard is equal to three feet. Most suburban houses have both a front yard and a back yard — sometimes side yards too. Yards might have grass, trees, bushes, play structures, gardens, patios, and decks. A completely different kind of yard is the unit of measurement that equals three feet. This three-foot yard comes from a Germanic root meaning "rod or staff," while the yard behind your house has a root that means "to enclose."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yard Yard yards yarded yarding

After three plays that managed just a single yard, the Eagles were forced to punt, and it was a sign of a troubling trend.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Additionally, they recovered multiple animal remains from a freezer and a yard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

When bovine TB led to the loss of his entire herd, dairy farmer Mervyn Kelso struggled with the sadness of the empty fields and the silence of the milking yard.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

But before you know it, they’ve taken over your yard.

From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026

The bears, strangely, didn’t bother any of the yard animals.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

The soft-purple 1889 house, tucked along a tree-lined street a few blocks from Harvard Yard, spans 6,321 square feet, with six bedrooms and six bathrooms.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026

A brick archway, leading into Harvard Yard, bearing an etched inscription:

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

The paper says the "sneaky move" has sparked "crisis meetings" between Scotland Yard and senior Cabinet ministers.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

Anabel Kindersley, CEO and co-owner of Neal's Yard Remedies, says one of the best ways to build your skills is to keep saying yes to new opportunities.

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026

Under cover of darkness, a wagon driver approached the Yard, hauling a load of mattresses for delivery to Swift & Company.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield

The spy - Southampton intern William Salt - is said to have parked at the golf club, then walked a couple of hundred yards down a road that leads to a raised area of ground.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Maye’s stat page felt like a refresh: 226 yards passing, two touchdown passes, 54 yards rushing, key plays late, and a splash of that 2025 Drake Maye swagger.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

The circuits transmit signals via four antennas on the box for several hundred yards, on frequencies the unit believes Russia is currently using.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

They converted only one of four fourth downs and managed just 172 yards.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

“We moved into the edge of Belleau Wood, and there facing us from the hill opposite, not more than a few hundred yards away, were the German positions,” Marine sergeant Melvin Krulewitch recalled.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman

Often on horseback, he yarded and penned cattle.

From Time Magazine Archive

When Atik returned, Miyax told him he did not need to go to the mountains—that a large herd was yarded not far up the river.

From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George

We also saw to-day dilapidated old yards, where they had formerly yarded emu or wallaby, though we saw none of their wurleys, or mymys, or gunyahs, or whatever name suits best.

From Australia Twice Traversed, Illustrated, by Ernest Giles

He yarded down here two miles or so.

From The Rainy Day Railroad War by Holman Day

“You’ve done as I told you, and only yarded at the ends of the twitch-roads, and haven’t hauled to landings?” he inquired.

From King Spruce, A Novel by Holman Day

The sharp fuss of grown-ups, issued from porches at the rowdy barefoot yarding of neighborhood kids, rises over the chatter of rocking chairs, to contend with manic squeals and out-of-breath laughter.

From Salon ● May 10, 2024

Farther south, yarding may occur only during years when the weather is more severe.

From Time Magazine Archive

For example, in northern Wisconsin, researchers have shown that individual does may remain on summer range during mild winters but will move to yarding areas when heavy snows and cold temperatures develop.

From Time Magazine Archive

What triggers whitetails to move to winter yarding areas?

From Time Magazine Archive

The worker stops the yarding machine by throwing her weight on her right foot, on a pedal to the right.

From Making Both Ends Meet The income and outlay of New York working girls by Sue Ainslie Clark

Related Words

• backyard
• courtyard
• garden
• grass
• lawn
• lot
• patch
• patio
• playground