What is the Difference Between a Graveyard and a Cemetery?

That is a tremendous question, Tony. While too late to take advantage of Halloween to boost my readership by spooky leaps and bounds, this topic seems well-worth pondering. My immediate thoughts are thus: The graveyard is where spooks, goblins and other nefarious creatures of the night wander in eternal restlessness in search of peace for their tortured souls and ghouls such as Victorian-age graverobbers fulfilled their horrific, filthy deeds.

The cemetery, on the other hand, feels more orderly and much less horrific in my mind. A place where loved ones visit their dearly departed and take comfort in being near and to tend to the gravesite and leave flowers, be they fresh or plastic, which last much, much longer, for those in the memorial know.

My idea of a cemetery

 Of course, I could be wildly wrong. To debunk or confirm my rash and hasty answer to the question, the staff and management of the Go Ask Jerry Research Team, Detective Agency and Haberdashery was dispatched to the four corners of the Earth in search of the truth. And this is what they found:

From the Worldwide Source of Knowledge (Google):

"The word cemetery (from Greek κοιμητήριον, means "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Roman catacombs. The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard."

Aside from the laziness of the over-paid research staff (this lack of effort will be noted in their next merit review...), Everything, it seems, always come back to the Greeks. "Sleeping place" sounds rather kind and mildly soothing for those who have lost a loved-one. Nice move, though it makes little sense to those unwashed masses who have lost touch with the ancient Indo-European languages (me).

Surprisingly, it was the churches who brought the definition of a burial area back to the commonfolk (me). With its easily-deciphered definition, "Grave Yard" leaves little room for error. If you turn up at a graveyard, there should be little to no surprise in what you find upon arrival. Thanks, churches, for once in your holy lives doing something that is not nebulous, haughty and often more than a little creepy. In fact, the use of the word "yard" makes it sound even a little playful, hardly a word often associated with the word "church". 

I stand by my definition of "graveyard", regardless of the researched definition of the term. What better place for the goblins and ghosts to gather to search for relief than in a church graveyard. Where else would a tortured soul go to find its lost way to heaven, I ask you? And as the grave-robbing ghouls would say, "Good day, sir."