Prepares to make a good pitch? crossword clue
40 Down · WSJ Crossword, October 13, 2026 · 7 letters
Explanation
The answer to “Prepares to make a good pitch?” is TUNESUP. It appears as 40 Down in the Wall Street Journal crossword of October 13, 2026, a Tuesday puzzle titled “The Old College Try” by Vasu Seralathan, and it fills 7 squares running top to bottom from row 9, column 2 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 T and ends with P, and contains 3 vowels 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. Tuesday puzzles stay approachable with light wordplay, so expect the rest of this grid to be pitched at the same level.
Past appearances
TUNESUP 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.