WSJ Contest — Friday, January 16, 2026 |

WSJ (Contest) Grid: 15 minutes; Meta: 15 more [4.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Please State in Full” — Conrad’s writeup.

This week we’re looking for a two-syllable word. There were five long multi-word theme entries, each containing a state abbreviation. Some had multiple abbreviations, which threw me off for a bit, until I realized that the thematic ones formed separate words:

WSJ Contest – 01.18.2026

• (OH) WELL THEN: [“I guess that’s that”]
• HELP (ME) OUT: [“I need a hand here”]
• PAS (DE) DEUX: [Couple’s dance]
• (HI) AND LOIS: [Comic strip since 1954]
• MILITARY (ID): [It may be checked at a checkpoint]

Next step: map back to the grid. There were five grid entries that formed the full names of the states, minus the two abbreviated letters, plus one extra letter. Here they are in theme entry order:

• [F]IO -> (OH)IO
• [I]AIN -> (M)AIN(E)
• LAW[F]ARE -> (DE)LAWARE
• AWAI[T] -> (H)AWA(I)
• AHO[Y] -> (ID)AHO

The extra letters spell our contest solution FIFTY. Fun puzzle! It seemed messy at first, until I realized that the state abbreviations formed separate words in the themers. And the answer was a lock. Solvers: please share your thoughts.