yardage

Yardage is a unit of length in the imperial system, defined as three feet. It is used in a variety of fields to express distance, length, or amount, and can refer to the distance already traveled, the distance remaining, or the total length of an object or quantity. The term is commonly encountered in sports, textiles, and construction, and is often paired with context that clarifies whether it denotes length, distance to go, or required material.

In American football, yardage is a central statistic describing production and progress. Players accumulate rushing, receiving, and passing yards, which are tallied to measure performance. The field itself is marked in yards, with ten-yard intervals indicating distance to gain a first down. Yardage to go is a frequent shorthand for how far a team must advance to achieve a new set of downs.

In golf, yardage indicates the distance from tee to hole for each hole. Yardage information informs club selection and strategy, and courses publish yardage for each hole. Yardage markers along fairways and a yardage book assist players in estimating distances to hazards and greens.

In textiles and sewing, yardage refers to the length of fabric purchased or required for a project, typically sold by the yard. Fabric width varies, so buyers convert between yards and other units as needed for patterns and inventory.

Conversions are commonly used across contexts: 1 yard equals 3 feet or 36 inches, and about 0.9144 meters. Yardage thus serves as a general-purpose measure of distance or material length in diverse applications.