WSJ Contest — Friday, February 13, 2026 |

WSJ (Contest) Grid: 25 minutes; Meta: an hour or so rate it

Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “60/40 Split” — Conrad’s writeup.

This week we’re looking for a five-letter word. I backsolved this one, but I suspect that I have a lot of company on that front. There were five long theme entries:

• SAMPLEERROR: Poll skewer (WWII area)
• POPPYSEED: Bagel option (Kid of note)
• HAWAIIANGEESE: Nenes (some action figures)
• ALANAHAIM: One of Taylor’s besties (useful connection)
• DADDYISSUES: Netflix series starring Aimee Lou Wood (activist Barkan)

Each clue had two parts. I wasted a lot of time looking for action figures called nenes, before realizing that the parenthetical clues were separate. I wrote the classic crosswordese ETO (WWII area) next to SAMPLEERROR. But: that entry lacked a T. Activist Barkan has one possible grid entry: ADY, which is almost in D(ADDY)ISSUES, assuming you skipped the extra D. The theme entries all had two sets of doubled letters: except for A(LAN)AHAIM. But that entry contained LAN, which is a great answer for useful connection. The theme entries were 9, 11, or 13 letters long, and there was no obvious way to apply 60/40 to them.

The puzzle looked like a mess, so I knew that I was missing something. I plodded along. I had E(T)O … … L(A)N A(D)Y in my notes. T..AD based on the middle letters. I backsolved TRIAD, which lead me to find (another crosswordese favorite) Kid O(R)Y. I searched for the missing I, and wrote G(I)S in my notes. I was least sure of that one, since GI Joes would be a better answer, and nobody calls them GIs. So… TRIAD, I guess.

I would have sent TRIAD in as my answer and called it a day, but I had to write this up for Fiend: meaning that I need to actually explain the mechanism. “TRIAD, I guess” doesn’t do that. I continued my backsolve.

60/40 had to be relevant. I realized that each theme entry contained a 5-letter word, each with three (60%) repeated letters. Deleting those letters left two (40%). Then add the missing letter to match the parenthetical second clues:

WSJ Contest – 02.15.2026

• (E)RR(O)R -> E(T)O
• P(O)PP(Y) -> O(R)Y
• (G)EE(S)E -> G(I)S
• A(L)A(N)A -> L(A)N
• D(A)DD(Y) -> A(D)Y

The added letters spell our contest solution TRIAD. As in three.

This meta was a shaggy dog for me. I see the idea, and (if my answer right) it all technically fits. But… yeah. I certainly may be missing something. Solvers: please share your thoughts. And let me know if you backsolved TRIAD, and then found the mechanism, or if you followed intended mechanism, leading you to TRIAD.