square yard
3
1.8
- noun
- /skwɛr jɑrd/
- UK
:
yard cuadrado
- The garden measures 50 square yards, providing ample space for planting vegetables.
- about 1,800 square yards
Examples
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I used to live in Dallas, and all the houses had huge fenced-in square yards in back that were just grass.
Blog text (28) -
We'd only get a hit if we're within 100 square yards.
-
I want this down to the square yard.
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At night, there may be one ghost crab every square yard.
Academic text (1990) -
One square yard of bones can support over 170 different species, some of which only live on dead whales.
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There wasn't much room, just a few square yards of relatively flat space, and a low windbreak made from loose rock.
Fiction book (1991) -
The labyrinth itself measures approximately 5 square yards (4.8 square meters).
Academic text (2011) -
All of the plots allocated by the Karachi Development Authority, the city's largest land developer, are over 60 square yards.
Academic text (1992) -
For instance, 32,000 square yards of plastic sheathing and 6,000 sheets of plywood are used to cover the field.
Academic text (2013) -
In one area, we mapped seventy-four egg clutches within about 1,800 square yards, and in the other, thirty-one clutches scattered over about 500 square yards.
Academic text (2002)
Synonyms
A unit of area equal to a square one yard on each side used to measure land or fabric
How Big
84
1.9
- US
15
2.6
- US
10
1.0
- UK
3
1.8
- US
133
1.4
- US
22
1.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'square' (a square shape) combined with 'yard' (a unit of length) yields the area of a square with one-yard sides. This noun-noun measurement pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the unit meaning.
Etymology
Square yard comes from the simple picture of a square whose sides are one yard long. The space inside that square is the 'unit of area', so the phrase means the exact amount of area in a square with sides of 'one yard'.