Red Herring Answers for August 9, 2025
All 16 words from the Saturday board, kept in their groups. 8 of them carry a note explaining the link.
Red Herring Answers for August 9, 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.
Pixar Short Films
Group · 4 words- PiperWinner of the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, "Piper" (2016) has no dialogue.
- BaoThe first woman director of a Pixar short, Domee Shi drew on her childhood experience to create her Oscar-winning "Bao" (2018).
- Lava"Lava" (2014) is the musical tale of an ancient volcano pining for love.
- LoopPixar created its SparkShorts program to find new filmmakers. "Loop" (2020) was the 6th film released from SparkShorts.
berry
Group · 4 words- GooseEvery August since 1800, the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society in England holds a competition to crown the year's champion gooseberry grower.
- PartridgeThe bright red fruit of the partridgeberry shrub are edible but almost tasteless.
- Rowan
- SugarA relative of the elm, the sugarberry tree grows widely throughout the southern US.
Lifting Apparatus
Group · 4 wordsThe Links Behind the August 9, 2025 Groups
Piper — Pixar Short Films
Winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, "Piper" (2016) has no dialogue.
Bao — Pixar Short Films
The first woman director of a Pixar short, Domee Shi drew on her childhood experience to create her Oscar-winning "Bao" (2018).
Lava — Pixar Short Films
"Lava" (2014) is the musical tale of an ancient volcano pining for love.
Loop — Pixar Short Films
Pixar created its SparkShorts program to find new filmmakers. "Loop" (2020) was the 6th film released from SparkShorts.
Goose — berry
Every August since 1800, the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society in England holds a competition to crown the year's champion gooseberry grower.
Partridge — berry
The bright red fruit of the partridgeberry shrub are edible but almost tasteless.
Sugar — berry
A relative of the elm, the sugarberry tree grows widely throughout the southern US.
Hoist — Lifting Apparatus
The hoist only provides vertical lift, whereas the more complicated crane can move loads horizontally as well.
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 August 9, 2025 that was Pixar Short Films. 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