Red Herring Answers for May 23, 2025
All 16 words from the Friday board, kept in their groups. 6 of them carry a note explaining the link.
Red Herring Answers for May 23, 2025
Every word from the Friday board — the 3 groups and the 4 red herrings that belong to none of them. Browse the rest of 2025 or the complete archive.
Billy Joel Albums
Group · 4 words- The StrangerJoel's breakout album "The Stranger" (1977) is Columbia Records' best-selling album ever, with more than 11 million units sold worldwide.
- 52nd StreetJoel's first album to go to #1, "52nd Street" (1978) won Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Album of the Year.
- Storm Front"Storm Front" (1989) was nominated for 5 Grammys.
- Glass Houses"Glass Houses" (1980) contained Joel's first #1 single, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," which spent 11 weeks in the top 10.
Places or Industries
Group · 4 words- Madison Avenue
- K StreetWashington, D.C.'s K Street has traditionally housed so many lobbyists that its name has become a "metonym," a place that signifies a whole industry.
- Silicon Valley
- Detroit
Musicals
Group · 4 words🐟 Red Herrings
Belong to no group- Lexington Avenue
- Dew Point
- Low Pressure
- Midstream
The Links Behind the May 23, 2025 Groups
The Stranger — Billy Joel Albums
Joel's breakout album "The Stranger" (1977) is Columbia Records' best-selling album ever, with more than 11 million units sold worldwide.
52nd Street — Billy Joel Albums
Joel's first album to go to #1, "52nd Street" (1978) won Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Album of the Year.
Storm Front — Billy Joel Albums
"Storm Front" (1989) was nominated for 5 Grammys.
Glass Houses — Billy Joel Albums
"Glass Houses" (1980) contained Joel's first #1 single, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," which spent 11 weeks in the top 10.
K Street — Places or Industries
Washington, D.C.'s K Street has traditionally housed so many lobbyists that its name has become a "metonym," a place that signifies a whole industry.
42nd Street — Musicals
"42nd Street" won 3 Tony Awards during its 1980-1989 initial run and 2001-2005 revival.
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 May 23, 2025 that was Billy Joel Albums. 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