Red Herring Answers for January 25, 2025
All 16 words from the Saturday board, kept in their groups. 5 of them carry a note explaining the link.
Red Herring Answers for January 25, 2025
Every word from the Saturday board — the 3 groups and the 4 red herrings that belong to none of them. Browse the rest of 2025 or the complete archive.
Ballet Dancers
Group · 4 words- NijinskyNo video footage of Vaslav Nijinsky exists because the head of his dance company felt film of the day didn't to justice to his dancers' skills.
- BaryshnikovLegendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in "The Turning Point" (1977).
- PavlovaAnna Pavlova (1881-1931) was the first ballerina to tour the world with her own ballet company.
- CopelandIn 2015 Misty Copeland became the first African-American woman to be promoted to the position of principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre.
Desserts
Group · 4 words🐟 Red Herrings
Belong to no group- Stroganoff
- Prokofiev
- Chicken Kiev
- CoplandDespite his acclaimed classical music career, Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was reportedly not fond of being called the "Dean of American Composers."
The Links Behind the January 25, 2025 Groups
Nijinsky — Ballet Dancers
No video footage of Vaslav Nijinsky exists because the head of his dance company felt film of the day didn't to justice to his dancers' skills.
Baryshnikov — Ballet Dancers
Legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in "The Turning Point" (1977).
Pavlova — Ballet Dancers
Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) was the first ballerina to tour the world with her own ballet company.
Copeland — Ballet Dancers
In 2015 Misty Copeland became the first African-American woman to be promoted to the position of principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre.
Napoleon — Desserts
A Napoleon is made of pastry cream layered between sheets of puff pastry.
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 January 25, 2025 that was Ballet Dancers. 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