backyard

The word “backyard” means an outdoor area behind a house, often used for gardens, play, or relaxing. In plain terms, the outdoor space behind a home, or more broadly, someone's immediate territory or area of concern.

“Backyard” is pronounced bak-YAHD (/bækˈjɑːd/ in IPA).

Here is “backyard” used in a sentence: “The kids spent the whole summer playing in the backyard.”

“Backyard” is a noun.

“Backyard” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.

“Backyard” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: an outdoor area behind a house, often used for gardens, play, or relaxing.

In American English, a backyard is the outdoor area behind a house, whether paved, grassed, or planted, while British English usually calls that same private space the "garden." Americans tend to reserve "garden" for a planted area, so an American backyard may contain a garden.

As a noun meaning the area behind a house, it is usually written as one word, "backyard." The two-word form "back yard" also appears, but the single word is the more common modern spelling in American English.

Beyond the space behind a house, "backyard" can mean a person's immediate local area or a country's sphere of influence, as in "instability in the region is seen as a threat in America's backyard." This sense stresses closeness and a sense of territory.