Meaning & use
yard
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Meanings
nouncountable
A unit of length equal to 3 feet or about 0.9144 meters.
Grammar: Use it after a number: three yards, a few yards.
Patterns
- a yard of something
- yards of something
The pool is 25 yards long.
He bought two yards of fabric to make curtains.
The finish line is only a few yards away.
nouncountableAmerican
An enclosed area of ground next to a building, often with a wall or fence.
Grammar: In American English, 'yard' usually means the area around a house; in British English, 'garden' is more common for a private outdoor space.
Patterns
- in the yard
- the front yard
- the back yard
The children are playing in the yard.
We have a small yard with a few trees.
She hung the laundry in the backyard.
nouncountable
An area of ground used for a particular purpose, such as work or storage.
Grammar: Often used in compounds: a shipyard, a junkyard, a lumberyard.
Patterns
- a shipyard
- a junkyard
- a lumberyard
He works at the shipyard building new vessels.
The old cars were taken to the junkyard.
They bought timber from the lumberyard.
Word forms
| plural | yards |
|---|
Common combinations
- front yard
- They planted roses in the front yard.
- back yard
- The dog ran around the back yard.
- yard work
- He spends weekends doing yard work.
- a yard of
- She needed a yard of ribbon for the gift.
- yard sale
- We found a nice table at a yard sale.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: yard or meter?
yard vs meter
A meter is the metric unit of length; a yard is slightly shorter (1 yard = 0.9144 meters).
Practice
Complete the sentence: The children are playing in the ______.
Choose one answer.
'Yard' fits because it refers to the enclosed outdoor area next to a house. 'Yardage' means total yards, 'yardstick' is a measuring tool or standard, and 'yards' would need a plural context like 'in the yards' which is less natural here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “yard”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.