Definition
A unit of measurement for cut wood equal to 128 cubic feet. The standard cord is a pile eight feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high, stacked as closely as the irregular shape of the wood allows. As a legal term, cord appears most often in contracts for the sale of firewood, pulpwood, or bark, and in statutes governing weights and measures. A contract for the sale of wood by the cord calls for delivery of the number of cubic feet that standard implies—not merely a pile of equivalent visual bulk.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A cord is a string or small rope made of twisted strands; also, a unit of stacked wood equal to 128 cubic feet; also a verb meaning to stack wood or tie with cords.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A string or small rope composed of several strands twisted together; also a solid measure of 128 cubic feet—a pile eight feet long, four feet high, and four feet broad, originally measured with a cord or line.
Editorial note: The rope meaning and the measurement meaning share a single word in ordinary English, and the measurement meaning itself derives from the rope—the pile was historically measured by stretching a cord around it. In legal usage, cord is exclusively the unit of volume measurement. The rope meaning is irrelevant in legal and commercial contexts.
Why It Matters in Research
Cord is a term of measurement with narrow but specific legal significance. Three research considerations are worth flagging.
First, cord appears in two distinct legal settings: contract disputes over the quantity or quality of wood delivered, and regulatory disputes under statutes governing weights and measures. The legal question in each is slightly different—contract cases ask what the parties agreed to and whether delivery conformed; statutory cases ask whether the seller's measurement method complied with the prescribed standard.
Second, the 128-cubic-foot figure is the gross cord, meaning the total volume of the pile including air space between pieces. This is not the same as the net or solid cord of actual wood fiber, which varies depending on how the wood is split and stacked. Historical cases occasionally turn on this distinction, and researchers should not assume uniformity when the source documents refer to cord without qualification.
Third, cord appears in early American case law at the state level—particularly New York and Massachusetts—in disputes involving railroad fuel supply contracts and timber commerce. The New York case Kennedy v. Railroad Co., 67 Barb. 177, cited in the second edition of Black's, and the Massachusetts case found at 2 Allen 319, cited in Rapalje & Lawrence, are the core authorities for the definition in historical legal sources. Researchers working with 19th-century commercial contracts in the timber, fuel, or railroad industries should be alert to cord as a potential flash point for quantity disputes.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in close agreement. Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, Rapalje & Lawrence, and Anderson's all define cord as 128 cubic feet of wood, and all either cite or implicitly reference the same New York authority. Rapalje & Lawrence adds the helpful distinction between the dimensions case (67 Barb. 169) and the weights-and-measures statute case (2 Allen 319), making it the most practically useful of the shelf sources for a researcher tracing the measurement standard across both contract and regulatory contexts.
Anderson's makes the commercial implication explicit: a contract for sale of wood by the cord calls for the statutory cubic footage. This editorial gloss, absent from the other dictionaries, is useful because it bridges the definition to contract performance questions.
Burrill's Law Dictionary does not contain a cord entry in the material available; the Burrill text provided in the source material concerns estoppel by record and is evidently a misfeed from adjacent pages. Researchers should not expect Burrill's to be a useful source on this term.
The Bouvier's excerpt referencing Pennsylvania deed requirements is similarly a misfeed and bears no relation to cord as a unit of measure.
No historical dictionary engages with the air-space or solid-cord distinction, which became more significant commercially in the 20th century as the pulpwood industry developed its own measurement conventions. Researchers working with post-1900 timber or paper industry contracts may need to supplement the historical dictionaries with industry standards or state regulatory materials.
Jurisdictional Note
Most states with significant timber or fuel commerce enacted weights-and-measures statutes defining the cord, typically tracking the 128-cubic-foot standard. Variation exists in how states regulate the measurement method for fractional or irregular loads. Researchers should consult the applicable state statute directly; the historical cases from New York and Massachusetts reflect those states' particular regulatory frameworks and should not be universally assumed.