New Delhi, July 10 -- The answer to today's Contexto puzzle (#1391) is HERRING.

If you're still working through it, three hints are below before the reveal. Today's puzzle leans tricky - the word's strongest associations pull toward idiom rather than the fish itself, which threw off many early guesses.

Hint 1: The word is a noun and can also be an adjective in compound form.

Hint 2: It's a type of fish - but the most semantically proximate words in today's puzzle skew toward its figurative meaning.

Hint 3: The phrase "red ___" is one of the most common idioms in the English language, used to describe a deliberate distraction or misleading clue.

Today's Contexto Answer:

HERRING

HERRING is both a species of small, oily fish found in ...