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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. informal short for Scotland Yard

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yard ² 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 ³ 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 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

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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. )

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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

Without a human, the truck drives from depot to another depot or yard where the trailer is either unloaded or a human driver takes over for docking or driving the final mile.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

The woman was bitten by the dog, and the pair let the dog out of the yard, luring him out with food, according to Reyes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

“Eventually, Mr. Seaver’s residence had a no-trespassing sign in the front yard and barbed wire draped across the handrails leading to the front door,” the filing alleged.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

An unlocked access gate linked the yard around villas to a bamboo forest, making it possible for the prisoners to enter and exit at will.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

I’m walking, faster and faster toward the train yard, where off-duty engines loom over rusty railroad ties.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

At The Yard, a junkyard playground on a former Coast Guard installation in New York City, children play with hammers, saws and knives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Darden Restaurants said the World Cup benefited its Yard House sports-bar chain but was a negative overall for the company’s latest quarterly results.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

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

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

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

It is ten forty-five when Booth pulls back on the reins once again and canters up to the wooden drawbridge by the Navy Yard.

From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly

He ranks sixth among active players with 11,363 receiving yards and seventh with 819 receptions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

Instead, Allen ran for a game-high 121 yards on 10 carries.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

At halftime, Allen had only 60 passing yards with an interception and no touchdowns.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

The Rams continued their penalty-filled foibles: They were flagged 11 times for 84 yards, many of the pre-snap variety that drives coach Sean McVay crazy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 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

Extra vagance! it depends on how you are yarded.

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Such dust baths should be especially provided for yarded chickens and during the winter.

From The Dollar Hen by Milo M. (Milo Milton) Hastings

One day in winter, when I was about thirteen years old, my brothers, Nat and Ebenezer, went up to Nott's Brook, to see if they could find some deer yarded in the swamp.

From Ben Comee A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59 by M. J. (Michael Joseph) Canavan

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

What triggers whitetails to move to winter yarding areas?

From Time Magazine Archive

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

Very often something breaks on the yarding or loading donkey.

From Motor Truck Logging Methods Engineering Experiment Station Series, Bulletin No. 12 by Frederick Malcolm Knapp

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Related Words

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

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