yard

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a unit of length equal to 3 feet; defined as 91.44 centimeters; originally taken to be the average length of a stride
  2. noun the enclosed land around a house or other building
  3. noun a tract of land enclosed for particular activities (sometimes paved and usually associated with buildings)

Etymology

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”). See also North Frisian guard, Guart (“garden, yard”), Dutch gaard, gaarde (“garden, yard”), German Garten (“garden, yard”), Danish, Swedish gård (“farm, estate, land; court, yard”), Faroese, Icelandic garður (“garden; fence”), Norn gart (“farm”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk gard, gård (“farm; townhouse”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards, “court, yard; house”), Lithuanian gardas (“pen, enclosure”), Russian го́род (górod, “town”), Serbo-Croatian grad (“town”), Slovene grad (“castle”), Albanian gardh (“fence”), Romanian gard (“fence”), Avestan 𐬔𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬵𐬀 (gərədha, “dev's cave”), Sanskrit गृह (gṛha, “house, habitation, home, dwelling”)), Medieval Latin gardinus, jardinus (“garden, yard”). Doublet of garden, garth, and gord.

In classic literature

Synonyms

pace

A single word — an entire dictionary opens.

Type a word, a sentence, a book title, or a link to an English article. WordNet and the Classics answer.

Try

A library of classics · a vault of words · instant etymology & meaning

Continue reading