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PlainSpell

yard

/ˈjɑɹd/noun, verb

yard is spelled Y-A-R-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 37 times per million words in written English, the 2,618th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, yard means “A small, usually uncultivated area adjoining or (now especially) within the precincts of a house or other building” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of yard is yards.

How many letters and syllables are in yard?

Letters4: Y-A-R-D
Syllables1
In writing37 times per million words; the 2,618th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is yard?

Yard appears 37 times per million words in written English, the 2,618th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce yard?

  • UK /ˈjɑːd/
  • UK [ˈjɑːd]
  • US /ˈjɑɹd/

Yard has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-yard.wav, En-us-yard.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with yard?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as yard from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: dray.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of yard

  • yards plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • yod
  • yarding participle, present
  • yarded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does yard mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

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

  3. 3

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

  4. 4

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

  5. 5

    One’s house or home.

  6. 6

    A unit of length equal to 3 feet in the US customary and British imperial systems of measurement, equal to precisely 0.9144 m since 1959 (US) or 1963 (UK).

  7. 7

    informalEllipsis of square yard, a unit of area; common with textiles.

  8. 8

    informalEllipsis of cubic yard, a unit of volume; common in mining and earthmoving.

  9. 9

    Units of similar composition or length in other systems.

  10. 10

    Any spar carried aloft.

  11. 11

    A long tapered timber hung on a mast to which is bent a sail, and may be further qualified as a square, lateen, or lug yard. The first is hung at right angles to the mast, the last two hang obliquely.

  12. 12

    obsoleteA branch, twig, or shoot.

  13. 13

    obsoleteA staff, rod, or stick.

  14. 14

    10⁹, A short scale billion; a long scale thousand millions or milliard.

    I need to hedge a yard of yen.

  15. 15

    slangOne hundred, usually referring to currency or money's worth.

    How much coke you want? Gimme a yard.

verb

  1. 1

    To confine to a yard.

  2. 2

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

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate yard?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of yard: yd..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Yard in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcour, jardin (land around a house), vergue (nautical: tapered timber from which square…), verge (staff, rod, stick), yard (three feet)
GermanHof (land around a house), Rah (nautical: tapered timber from which square…), Stab, Stock (staff, rod, stick), Yard (three feet)
Portuguesequintal, cercado, pátio (land around a house), verga (nautical: tapered timber from which square…), jarda (three feet)
Spanishpatio, yarda, yadra (land around a house), verga (nautical: tapered timber from which square…), vara (staff, rod, stick)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does yard come from?

From Middle English yerd, yard, ȝerd, ȝeard, from Old English ġeard (“yard, garden, fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gard, from Proto-Germanic *gardaz (“enclosure, yard”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰórdʰos, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to enclose”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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