Red Herring Answers for May 21, 2019
All 16 words from the Tuesday board, kept in their groups. 5 of them carry a note explaining the link.
Red Herring Answers for May 21, 2019
Every word from the Tuesday board — the 3 groups and the 4 red herrings that belong to none of them. Browse the rest of 2019 or the complete archive.
Monet Paintings
Group · 4 words- Poppies
- Weeping WillowMonet's "Weeping Willow" paintings were a response to the horrors of World War I. While painting this series, he could hear its artillery fire.
- Water Lilies
- Wisteria
Red Plants
Group · 4 words- Burning Bush
- Coral Bells
- ZwartkopZwartkop (also called "black rose") is a red-to-dark purple succulent from the Canary Islands.
- Japanese Blood GrassJapanese blood grass blades have red tips that become more intense through summer and fall.
Trees in Action
Group · 4 words- Flowering Dogwood
- Stinking YewStinking yew (Torreya taxifolia) is a critically endangered conifer found only along the Apalachicola River in the southeastern US.
- Shining Willow
- Quaking AspenA 106-acre grove of quaking aspen in Utah is actually all one organism of about 40,000 trunks growing from the same roots.
The Links Behind the May 21, 2019 Groups
Weeping Willow — Monet Paintings
Monet's "Weeping Willow" paintings were a response to the horrors of World War I. While painting this series, he could hear its artillery fire.
Zwartkop — Red Plants
Zwartkop (also called "black rose") is a red-to-dark purple succulent from the Canary Islands.
Japanese Blood Grass — Red Plants
Japanese blood grass blades have red tips that become more intense through summer and fall.
Stinking Yew — Trees in Action
Stinking yew (Torreya taxifolia) is a critically endangered conifer found only along the Apalachicola River in the southeastern US.
Quaking Aspen — Trees in Action
A 106-acre grove of quaking aspen in Utah is actually all one organism of about 40,000 trunks growing from the same roots.
Where these themes go next
Themes come back with different words. The recurring ones each have a page collecting every word they have used — see them all on the Red Herring hub.
Categories From This Board That Recur
Three Habits That Crack a Red Herring Board
Count to sixteen before you group anything
Every board is three groups of four plus four red herrings. Four words are meant to be left over, and players who forget that spend their time forcing a fourth group that was never there.
Solve the narrowest theme first
One group is always more specific than the others — a named set like "Mouse, Characters" rather than a loose one like "Strong Words". Lock that group first: each correct group removes four candidates from everything else on the board.
A word that fits two groups is usually a decoy
The herrings are chosen to look plausible in more than one place. When a word could sit in two themes, that ambiguity is the tell — set it aside rather than committing it to the group it fits slightly better. Any board in the archive is practice for it.
How to Solve a Red Herring Board
The order that clears a board fastest.
Count to sixteen first
Every board is three groups of four plus four red herrings. Knowing four words are meant to be left over stops you forcing a fourth group that does not exist.
Start with the tightest theme
One group is always more specific than the others — on May 21, 2019 that was Monet Paintings. Lock the group you are surest of, because each correct group removes four candidates from the rest.
Treat near-misses as suspects
A word that almost fits two groups is usually a herring. The puzzle is built so the decoys look plausible; plausibility is the tell, not the proof.
Verified Answers, Not Guesses
How we verify every dated board in the archive, group by group, with the red herrings kept separate
Each board is taken from the published puzzle for that date and re-checked against the source before it goes live. Notes explaining a link are kept as the source wrote them. The full routine is in our methodology, and the standards each page is held to are in the editorial policy.
Reviewed by Priya Raghunathan, Word Games Editor at Puzzle Solved. The full checking routine is in the methodology, and the standards every page is held to are in the editorial policy.
Last checked — Aug 24, 2026