scad

Most often, this word appears in the plural, especially in the phrase "scads of," and it means a great many or a large amount. You might hear that someone has scads of emails to answer or scads of ideas for a new project. In that everyday sense, it has an easy, informal tone and simply points to more than enough of something.

There is also a literal meaning: a scad is a kind of small sea fish related to the jack mackerel. That meaning is real, but in ordinary English, especially in conversation and writing that is not about fish, the sense of "a lot" is the one people are more likely to meet.

This word has two main uses, and one is much more common in general English than the other. In everyday informal use, especially as "scads" or "scads of," it means a great many things or a large amount. If someone says, "We have scads of time," or "There were scads of people at the beach," they simply mean there was a lot. The tone is casual, a little colorful, and slightly old-fashioned to some ears, but it is still easy to understand.

The other meaning is a fish: a scad is a small sea fish related to the jack mackerel. This sense appears in fishing, cooking, and marine contexts. People may use it for one fish or for kinds of fish in that group. These fish often move in schools and are caught for food in different parts of the world.

The quantity sense probably grew from the image of fish moving in large numbers, though many speakers use the expression without thinking about the animal at all. That is why the plural form matters so much here: "scads" is far more common than singular "scad" when the meaning is "a lot." So, depending on the setting, the word may point either to a small fish in the sea or, more often, to an abundance of things.