WSJ Contest — Friday, January 23, 2026 |

WSJ (Contest) Grid: 20 minutes; Meta: 5 more [3.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Critical Position” — Conrad’s writeup.

This week we’re looking for a word that might describe a critical situation.
Mike provided a thematic hint in the central entry: SECONDINCOMMAND, clued as Critical hierarchic position. The rest of the horizontal entries comprised the theme entries:

WSJ Contest – 01.25.2026

• PR(EDICT)ION: Early call
• MA(FIAT)IES: Mob connections
• B(ORDER)SON: Abuts
• LYN(DECRE)EK: Stream that flows into Lake Ontario near Toronto

Each themer contained a command:

• E[D]ICT
• F[I]AT
• O[R]DER
• D[E]CREE

The second letter in each command spells our contest solution DIRE. Solvers: please share your thoughts,