Yard, the English linear measure equivalent to three feet or thirty-six inches. The word is akin to good and yerd, meaning a rod or stick, but whether the stick was originally the length of a foot-pace or of a man's arm is not known. Custom determines the length of the yard reasonably well. It has been defined by statute as the distance between two marks on a metal bar deposited with the English keeper of weights and measures. The yard is by no means a scientific measure. If this metal rod were destroyed there is no way of reproducing it exactly. The United States government has abandoned the English yard for a yard based on the scientific meter. It has been found that the American yard is slightly longer than the English standard.