Sails force? crossword clue
11 Down · WSJ Crossword, August 18, 2026 · 4 letters
Explanation
The answer to “Sails force?” is NAVY. It appears as 11 Down in the Wall Street Journal crossword of August 18, 2026, a Tuesday puzzle titled “On The Corner” by Kelly Richardson, and it fills 4 squares running top to bottom from row 1, column 15 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 N and ends with Y, and contains 1 vowel and 3 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
NAVY 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.