Meanings
shad1
plural shads
- Any one of several species of food fishes that make up the genus Alosa in the family Clupeidae, to which the herrings also belong; river herring.
Each river had its village and its iron bridge that the train crossed with a blast of its whistle, and the girls bathing in the icy water leaped like shad as it passed, unsettling travelers with their fleeting breasts.
2003, Gabriel García Márquez, chapter 1, in Edith Grossman, transl., Living to Tell the Tale - South AfricaAny bluefish of the species Pomatomus saltatrix.
Shad2
Origin
shad · noun
- Old Englishsċeadd
- Middle Englishshadde
- Englishshad
From Middle English shadde, from Old English sċeadd, of uncertain origin. Compare Low German Schade (“shad, herring”), Scottish Gaelic sgadan (“herring”), Welsh ysgadan. Possibly from Scandinavian/North Germanic (compare dialectal Norwegian skadd (“small whitefish”), Old Norse skata (“kind of fish”)), but the order of borrowing is unclear and the ultimate origin of these words is obscure.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic شَابُل
- شَابُل (šābul)fishes of the herring family
Basque kolaka
- kolakafishes of the herring family
Bulgarian карагьоз
- карагьоз (karagjoz)fishes of the herring family
Catalan alosa
- alosafishes of the herring family
Dutch elft
- elftfishes of the herring family
Finnish täpläsilli, silli
- täpläsillifishes of the herring family
- sillifishes of the herring family
French alose
- alosefishes of the herring family
German Maifisch
- Maifischfishes of the herring family
Hungarian amerikai alóza, amerikai vándorhering
- amerikai alózafishes of the herring family
- amerikai vándorheringfishes of the herring family
- fintfishes of the herring family
Irish sead f2
- sead f2fishes of the herring family
Italian agone, alosa
- agonefishes of the herring family
- alosafishes of the herring family
Lithuanian alsė
- alsėfishes of the herring family
Polish aloza
- alozafishes of the herring family
Portuguese sável
- sávelfishes of the herring family
Russian шэд
- шэд (šɛd)fishes of the herring family
Spanish alosa, sábalo
- alosafishes of the herring family
- sábalofishes of the herring family
Swedish majfisk
- majfiskfishes of the herring family
Vietnamese cá trích đầy mình
- cá trích đầy mìnhfishes of the herring family
Welsh gwangen, gwengyn
- gwangenfishes of the herring family
- gwengynfishes of the herring family
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with shad
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
shad. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shad
“shad.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shad. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shad,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shad.
Source: shad on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.