WSJ Crossword September 21, 2026 Answers

About the WSJ Crossword

The Wall Street Journal crossword is one of the most widely solved daily crossword puzzles in the United States. Published six days a week, the WSJ crossword has built a loyal following among solvers who appreciate its clean grids, fair cluing and clever themes. Since 2015, when the Journal expanded from a single weekly puzzle to a full daily schedule, the WSJ crossword has become a fixture alongside the New York Times and LA Times puzzles in the daily routine of crossword fans.

The puzzle is edited by Mike Shenk, a veteran constructor and editor whose name has appeared on crosswords for more than three decades. Shenk’s editing style emphasizes precise clues, minimal obscure “crosswordese,” and themes that reward careful thought. Many of the puzzles are built by Shenk himself under a variety of pseudonyms, while others come from a regular roster of contributing constructors.

The weekly difficulty schedule

Like most major daily crosswords, the WSJ puzzle follows a difficulty curve across the week. Monday and Tuesday puzzles are the most approachable, with straightforward clues and familiar vocabulary, making them a good starting point for newer solvers. Wednesday and Thursday puzzles introduce more wordplay and trickier themes. Friday brings the toughest themed puzzle of the week, often with a rebus, a hidden gimmick, or a meta element that requires an extra step beyond filling the grid.

The weekend brings the WSJ variety puzzle alongside a larger themed crossword, historically a 21×21 Saturday grid that offers a Sunday-sized challenge with a wide-ranging theme. You can browse every weekend puzzle in our index separately in the weekend puzzles section.

The Friday contest crossword

One feature that sets the WSJ crossword apart is the weekly contest puzzle. Every Friday, the crossword contains a hidden meta answer, usually a single word or short phrase, that solvers must deduce from the completed grid. Clues in the theme entries, circled squares, or patterns in the fill point toward the solution. Solvers submit their answer online by Sunday evening, and a randomly chosen correct entrant wins a WSJ mug. The contest puzzle has developed a dedicated community, with solvers comparing notes on forums and blogs after the deadline passes each week.

Grid format and conventions

The standard weekday WSJ crossword is a 15×15 grid with rotational symmetry, containing roughly 70 to 78 words. Every letter is checked, meaning each square belongs to both an Across and a Down entry. Clue numbers run in reading order from the top left, and the puzzle follows American crossword conventions: abbreviations are signaled in the clue, plural answers get plural clues, and question-marked clues indicate puns or wordplay.

Because the puzzle appears in a financial newspaper, solvers will notice a slight tilt toward business, markets and economic vocabulary in the fill. Words like ANTE, BEAR, DEBIT and IPO appear more often than in other outlets, and themes occasionally play on Wall Street terminology. That said, the WSJ crossword covers the same broad territory as any general-interest puzzle: geography, pop culture, literature, science, sports and everyday language.

How to use this site

WSJCrossword.org posts the full list of clues from each day’s Wall Street Journal crossword shortly after the puzzle is released. The homepage lists every Across and Down clue for the latest puzzle without revealing any answers, so you can scan the list, find the clue you are stuck on, and decide for yourself whether to look. Clicking a clue opens its own answer page, which shows the solution letter by letter, the letter count, and a short explanation of how the entry fits the grid.

Each answer page also lists other clues from the same puzzle, so you can move through the grid without returning to the homepage, and shows past WSJ clues that used the same answer. Repeat answers are common in crosswords, and seeing how a word like EPEE or OBI has been clued before is one of the fastest ways to build the vocabulary that makes future puzzles easier.

Use the search bar at the top of any page to look up a clue directly. Searching works on partial text, so typing “fencing” will find “Fencing sword” even if you do not remember the exact wording. The archive links in the sidebar and navigation take you to previous days’ puzzles, and the weekend puzzles have their own section.

Tips for solving the WSJ crossword

Start with the short entries. Three- and four-letter answers are the scaffolding of any grid, and the WSJ relies on a familiar set of them: ERA, ALOE, OREO, ETUI, EPEE, OLEO and ALEE turn up week after week. Filling these first gives you crossing letters that make the longer theme entries easier to see. Pay attention to the title, which the Journal prints above every puzzle. Unlike some outlets, the WSJ title is a deliberate hint to the theme, and on Friday it is often the key to the meta answer.

Read the clue punctuation carefully. A question mark means the clue is a pun or misdirection, an abbreviation in the clue signals an abbreviated answer, and a clue in quotation marks is asking for a spoken phrase. If a clue ends in “briefly” or “for short,” expect initials. Cross-reference clues such as “See 17-Across” mean the two entries work together, so solve the referenced entry first.

If you get stuck, work from the crossings rather than the clue. Two or three confirmed letters in a five-letter answer usually leave only one sensible option. When even that fails, look up a single answer here, fill it in, and let the new letters unlock the surrounding region. Solvers who check one or two entries per puzzle typically find they need fewer lookups each week as the recurring vocabulary sinks in.

A note on getting help

Looking up a crossword answer is not cheating. Most experienced solvers check a reference now and then, and learning an unfamiliar word or name from a clue is exactly how crossword skill develops. Our goal is to help you finish the puzzle, understand every answer, and come back tomorrow a little faster. This site is an independent fan resource and is not affiliated with The Wall Street Journal or Dow Jones & Company.