The yard (symbol: yd) is a unit of length in the customary system, primarily used in the United States and the United Kingdom. One yard is defined as exactly 0.9144 meters.
The yard's origins date back to the Anglo-Saxon period. It was standardized in 1959 when an international agreement defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meters. Prior to this, various definitions existed, including the use of the king's body as a reference.
Yards are commonly used in everyday life for measuring distances in sports (like football fields), textiles (fabric lengths), and real estate (property dimensions). The yard is prevalent in the U.S. and the U.K., though metric units are more common in scientific contexts.