A yard is a unit of measurement equal to three feet or 36 inches. It's longer than a single step but shorter than most rooms. A football field measures 100 yards from goal line to goal line. Fabric for sewing and carpets for floors are often sold by the yard.

The word also means the outdoor area around a house or building. Your front yard might have grass and flowers, while a back yard could have a swing set or vegetable garden. A schoolyard is where students play at recess. Some yards serve special purposes: a junkyard stores old cars and scrap metal, a lumberyard sells wood for building, and a shipyard is where workers construct and repair ships.

Notice how these two meanings connect: many house yards can be measured in yards. When someone says “the ball landed ten yards away,” they're using the measurement. When they say “the ball landed in our neighbor's yard,” they mean the property. Context makes the difference clear.