Back yard or backyard?
back yard is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of backyard”; backyard is a noun meaning “A yard to the rear of a house or similar residence”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. back yard is written as two words and backyard as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between back yard and backyard?
| back yard | backyard | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of backyard | AustraliaCanadaUSA yard to the rear of a house or similar residence AustraliaCanadaUScolloquialA person's neighborhood, or an area nearby to a person's usual residence or place of work and where the person is likely to go |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | none | backyards |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /bækˈjɑːd/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 7.4 times per million words |
Sources: back yard and backyard in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of back yard and backyard
back yard
- 1
Alternative spelling of backyard
backyard
- 1
AustraliaCanadaUSA yard to the rear of a house or similar residence
- 2
AustraliaCanadaUScolloquialA person's neighborhood, or an area nearby to a person's usual residence or place of work and where the person is likely to go
- 3
AustraliaCanadaUScolloquialAn area nearby to a country or other jurisdiction's legal boundaries, particularly an area in which the country feels it has an interest
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, back yard or backyard?
back yard is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; backyard 7.4 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search back yard vs backyard?
“back yard vs backyard” is searched about 210 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“backyard vs back yard”, “back yard or backyard”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.