Word

Dance Card in Red Herring

Answer or decoy? Always part of a group — across 4 boards

Dance Card has appeared on 4 boards: 4 times inside a themed group and 0 times as a red herring. That is a 0% decoy rate.

4Boards
4In a group
0As a herring
0%Decoy rate
Answer or decoy

Is Dance Card a Red Herring?

Every appearance of Dance Card across the 3,529-board archive, and whether it belonged to a group that day or to the herrings.

In a group · 4 0 · red herring
100% part of a group 0% a red herring
Dance Card is always part of a group.

Groups it has belonged to

Every appearance

Dance Card on 4 Boards

Newest first. Red panels are the boards where it was a decoy — those are the ones worth remembering.

Why it fitted

What the Puzzle Said About Dance Card

01

August 17, 2017

This little booklet would hang from the lady's wrist, and she would write in it the names of the young men she planned to dance with that night.

02

March 30, 2020

This little booklet would hang from the lady's wrist, and she would write in it the names of the young men she planned to dance with that night.

03

November 11, 2022

This little booklet would hang from the lady's wrist, and she would write in it the names of the young men she planned to dance with that night.

04

November 9, 2025

This little booklet would hang from the lady's wrist, and she would write in it the names of the young men she planned to dance with that night.

Reading a board

Using a Word's History Without Being Fooled By It

01

A high decoy rate is a warning, not a rule

Dance Card has been a red herring on 0% of its appearances. That makes it worth leaving until last, not worth discarding — the board decides, and the three-group structure is what settles it.

02

Themes repeat, words move between them

This word has sat in 1 different themes. A returning theme brings different members with it, which is why the category pages show every word a theme has ever used rather than a fixed four.

03

Count to sixteen first

Three groups of four plus four herrings. Four words are meant to be left over, and expecting that is what stops you forcing a fourth group that was never there.

How to play

How to Solve a Red Herring Board

The order that clears a board fastest.

STEP 01

Count to sixteen first

Three groups of four plus four red herrings. Four words are meant to be left over — see any board in the archive.

STEP 02

Lock the tightest theme

Solve the most specific group first; each correct group removes four candidates from everything else.

STEP 03

Distrust the near-miss

A word that almost fits two groups is usually a decoy — which is exactly what a page like this one records.

How we check

Verified Answers, Not Guesses

How we verify every board Dance Card has appeared on, and whether it was an answer or a decoy each time

Word histories are built from the 3,529 dated boards in our archive rather than from any published list — the source has no word pages. Each appearance links to the board it came from so it can be checked. The routine is in our methodology and the standards in our 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
Numbers

Red Herring by the numbers

4Appearances
0%Decoy rate
9,550Words tracked
3,529Boards archived
Good to know

Dance Card FAQ

Is Dance Card a red herring in Red Herring?
Not so far. Across 4 boards it has always belonged to a group, never to the decoys.
How many times has Dance Card appeared?
4 boards between August 17, 2017 and November 9, 2025. The archive holds 3,529 boards in total, on the daily archive.
Which groups has Dance Card belonged to?
At the Ball. Recurring themes have their own pages listing every word they have used.
Does knowing this help me solve today's board?
It narrows a guess rather than making it for you. A word with a high decoy rate like this one is worth leaving alone until the groups you are sure of are locked; that is the order set out in the how to play guide. We hold 9,550 words this way, of which 2,050 have been both an answer and a decoy.
Discussion

Discuss Dance Card

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