Red Herring Answers for December 15, 2024
All 16 words from the Sunday board, kept in their groups. 8 of them carry a note explaining the link.
Red Herring Answers for December 15, 2024
Every word from the Sunday board — the 3 groups and the 4 red herrings that belong to none of them. Browse the rest of 2024 or the complete archive.
Canadian Lakes
Group · 4 words- Great Slave LakeMeasuring 2014 feet to the bottom, Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories is the deepest lake in North America.
- Emerald LakeEmerald Lake in British Columbia's Yoho National Park gets its signature green hue from surrounding mountains' limestone runoff.
- Maligne LakeLocated in Jasper National Park, Maligne Lake takes its name from the French word for "malevolent" because of the turbulent river flowing out of it.
- Moraine LakeMoraine Lake in Banff National Park was featured on the reverse of the Canadian twenty dollar bill in 1969 and 1979.
Ann Patchett Novels
Group · 4 words- Tom LakeGrown daughters return to isolate on the family farm during the COVID pandemic in Ann Patchett's 9th novel, "Tom Lake" (2023).
- CommonwealthPatchett waited until she was an established writer to pen her first autobiographical novel, "Commonwealth" (2016).
- RunPatchett followed up her blockbuster "Bel Canto" with "Run" (2007).
- Bel CantoPatchett's "Bel Canto" (2001) won the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction.
The Links Behind the December 15, 2024 Groups
Great Slave Lake — Canadian Lakes
Measuring 2014 feet to the bottom, Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories is the deepest lake in North America.
Emerald Lake — Canadian Lakes
Emerald Lake in British Columbia's Yoho National Park gets its signature green hue from surrounding mountains' limestone runoff.
Maligne Lake — Canadian Lakes
Located in Jasper National Park, Maligne Lake takes its name from the French word for "malevolent" because of the turbulent river flowing out of it.
Moraine Lake — Canadian Lakes
Moraine Lake in Banff National Park was featured on the reverse of the Canadian twenty dollar bill in 1969 and 1979.
Tom Lake — Ann Patchett Novels
Grown daughters return to isolate on the family farm during the COVID pandemic in Ann Patchett's 9th novel, "Tom Lake" (2023).
Commonwealth — Ann Patchett Novels
Patchett waited until she was an established writer to pen her first autobiographical novel, "Commonwealth" (2016).
Run — Ann Patchett Novels
Patchett followed up her blockbuster "Bel Canto" with "Run" (2007).
Bel Canto — Ann Patchett Novels
Patchett's "Bel Canto" (2001) won the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction.
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.
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 December 15, 2024 that was Canadian Lakes. 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 25, 2026