Comes out of one’s shell? crossword clue
6 Down · WSJ Crossword, May 14, 2026 · 5 letters
Explanation
The answer to “Comes out of one’s shell?” is MOLTS. It appears as 6 Down in the Wall Street Journal crossword of May 14, 2026, a Thursday puzzle titled “Speed Bumps” by Catherine Cetta, and it fills 5 squares running top to bottom from row 1, column 7 of the 15×15 grid.
The question mark at the end of the clue signals wordplay: the surface reading is a misdirection, and the answer fits a punning or figurative sense of the words. The entry begins with M and ends with S, and contains 1 vowel and 4 consonants. If you are working from the crossings, two or three confirmed letters from the Across entries should be enough to lock it in. Thursday puzzles lean harder on misdirection, so expect the rest of this grid to be pitched at the same level.
Past appearances
MOLTS has not appeared as an answer in any other WSJ puzzle in our index, which runs from May 2026 onward. It will be listed here the next time it turns up.