WSJ Contest — Friday, May 22, 2026 |

WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: 15 minutes rate it

Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Mark My Words” — Conrad’s writeup.

This week we’re looking for a five-letter word often seen in crosswords that we hope you find in this puzzle. There were five theme entries:

WSJ Contest – 05.24.2026

• POKEAROUND: Do a detective’s job, maybe
• RESUMEPLAY: Turn the game back on
• MATESELECTION: Start of the breeding process
• ROSEGARDEN: White House feature
• LAMEEXCUSE: “The cat ate my homework,” e.g.

I tried to parse “Mark” various ways, and CARD’s odd clue (“Item left at a job interview’) helped unlock the meta for me: RESUME (also written as RESUMÉ with an accented final E) made more sense. The first (accented) word of each theme entry matched another grid entry, here they are in themer order:

• EGGS: High-protein dish -> POKÉ
• CARD: Item left at a job interview -> RESUMÉ
• LASSI: It’s often made with cardamom -> MATÉ
• ASTI: Wine choice -> ROSÉ
• TOILE: Decorative fabric -> LAMÉ

The mapped grid entries spell our contest solution ÉCLAT. Solvers: please share your thoughts.