​ ALEWIFE, a North American fish (clupea pseudoharengus) belonging to the same family as the herring and the shad, and closely allied to them. It is caught in seines with the shad, in large quantities, at many places along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Nova Scotia, notably in Chesapeake Bay and the harbor of St. John, N. B. The name is given also to other related species and to fish of other families, as the round pompano of the Bermudas and the allice-shad of England.