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yard

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The enclosed land around a house or other building.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

yahrd
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈjɑɹd

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The enclosed land around a house or other building

    “It was a small house with almost no yard.”

  2. A small, usually uncultivated area adjoining or (now especially) within the precincts of a house or other building.

  3. An enclosed outdoors area designated for a specific purpose, e.g. on farms, railways etc.

  4. A place where moose or deer herd together in winter for pasture, protection, etc.

  5. USCanadaAustralia

    The property surrounding one's house, typically dominated by one's lawn.

  6. USCanadaAustraliaJamaicaMLE

    One's house or home.

verb

  1. transitive

    To confine to a yard.

  2. intransitivehumorous

    To move a yard at a time, as opposed to inching along.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The enclosed land around a house or other building

Used this way, yard is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“It was a small house with almost no yard.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use yard

  • “It was a small house with almost no yard.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Unit / long

front yardsquare yardcubic yard

Enclosed / small

lumber yard

Other combinations

navy yardyard lineschool yardchurch yard

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • yard markernounCompound term

    A marker indicating the yard line.

  • yard measurenounCompound term

    A ruler or tape that is three feet long.

  • yard salenounCompound term

    An outdoor sale of used personal or household items held on the seller's premises.

  • yard birdnounCompound term

    A military recruit who is assigned menial tasks.

  • yard donkeynounCompound term

    A winch (or system of winches) powered by an engine and used to haul logs from a stump to a landing or to a skid road.

  • yard goodsnounCompound term

    Merchandise in the form of fabrics sold by the yard.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • yardagenounRelated term

    Distance measured in the aggregate number of yards.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.