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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.  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. informal short for Scotland Yard

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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

Less than a mile from the tracks, a “sale pending” sign sat in Dana Kyker’s yard.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

He described it as a "target contract" and warned it would be "very difficult" to sustain workforce numbers if the yard did not secure the work.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Outside of the Huddleston family home, a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag rustled in the yard next to a DirecTV satellite dish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

“This will be displayed in a special way in our yard. I hope to share the photos of our yard when it’s completed with the statue beautifully placed.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

A deep voice rose above the shuddering of the wash drum agitators that floated out to the yard from the workroom.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Luckily, I had a suit and tie and showed up at the correct Washington Navy Yard gate plenty early.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Jeff Bartlett had good reason for his tears during a second viewing at Norfolk Southern’s Rose Yard in Altoona.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

In an update at New Scotland Yard, he said he could not comment when asked if the killer could have been targeting other Reform figures.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

Earlier this year, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice held an exhibition at Art Space Huntington Park called “We Are Water” to uplift local Indigenous artists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

Chicago was on the move, becoming biggest at just about everything: world’s biggest lumberyard, world’s busiest grain center, and, when the Union Stock Yard opened in 1865, the world’s biggest stockyard.

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

Riley’s teams have averaged more yards per play in his tenure than any other team in the nation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

Though Green threw two touchdowns last week and ran for the winning touchdown, he threw two interceptions and tallied only 139 yards through the air.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

The defense held San José State to just 102 yards in the first half.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

Still, USC tallied more than 500 total yards in an otherwise ho-hum debut, with star quarterback Jayden Maiava completing 25 of 29 passes for 286 yards and three total touchdowns.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

We find quaint houses with rusted tricycles in the front yards.

From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas

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

What is the condition of a stockman after he has brought up his mob and yarded it for the night?

From Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand by William Delisle Hay

The beef scrap will also be less than with yarded fowls, perhaps twenty-five cents per hen.

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

The bull would not wander far from the cows, and we drove them up and yarded them, with a good feed of fresh koraka, every now and then.

From Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand by William Delisle Hay

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 snow's got so deep they are yarding here together.

From A Busy Year at the Old Squire's by C. A. (Charles Asbury) Stephens

Related Words

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