WSJ (Contest) Grid: 10 minutes; Meta: 10 more 
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Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Cherchez la Femme” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a five-letter word used on farms. I understand very little French, so my Googling lead to this Wikipedia article. The title translates to Look for the Woman, a detective fiction cliche.
The five theme entries contained an animal:
- (HORSE)SENSE: [Rational thoughts]
- (DEER)HUNTER: [Best Picture winner of 1978, with “The”]
- NOSPRING(CHICKEN): [Old as the hills]
- BLACK(SHEEP): [Family rebel]
- (PIG)INAPOKE: [Item of dubious value]
WSJ Contest – 11.23.2025
I searched for the female names of each animal in the grid and found the rabbit. Five entries containing the name of each female animal, plus one letter. Here they are in mapped entry order:
- 14A: DO[B]E -> DOE
- 21A: MAR[I]E -> MARE
- 22A: EWE[R] -> EWE
- 51A: [T]HEN -> HEN
- 63A: S[H]OW -> SOW
The extra letters in the mapped grid entries spell our contest solution BIRTH. Another well constructed puzzle by Matt. Solvers: please share your thoughts. I feel like I’m missing something about the French connection, so please fill me in.
And why does the prompt have anything to do with farms? I get that it’s trying to tie into the animal angle, but BIRTH is about the last word I’d think of if you asked me to name words used on farms. Good, classic meta though.
I guess it depends on the kind of far. Soybeans not so much. Pigs and goats, pretty often.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I don’t think I’ll ever use it for chickens
+1
Also deer are not farm animals.
Liked it despite the tenuous connection to farms.
Actually, deer are raised on farms for venison in several US states and a great deal in New Zealand. Still, I agree that the connections between the puzzle’s title, farms, and the answer of “birth” to be a weaker than most week’s.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Fun in all respects.
I liked this one! Good job Matt!!
I got it quickly and enjoyed solving it. But I too thought BIRTH was a bit odd. I think of BREED for farm animals.
The answer should be for a word used in maybe hospitals or nurseries, not farms!
I supposed that someone with a midwest accent trying to say Cherchez la femme, may sound a bit like Cherchez la farm. Maybe? :)
****
God, I hope not.
I like my five letter answer – EIEIO. The connection to a farm is undeniable
This is the first WSJ meta I’ve solved in months, so naturally I loved it.
While solving, the fill seemed crunchier than usual, especially stuff like JWWOW and MUSSINA. But it only took me a few minutes longer than usual, so I guess it wasn’t as hard as it seemed at the time.
There is no French connection. Rather the expression simply suggests looking for the feminine version of the key answers, which you did.
I did not like BIRTH at all, too generic for “used on farms” in my book, so I submitted CALVE, which is a word for birth that is pretty much only used on farms.
Where does one look up the answers for the WSJ metas?
Found it, at the bottom of the Monday puzzle right where you’d expect it. I cry, “Foul, misleading hint!” and demand a mug.