The answer is FAIRYTALEENDING. That’s 15 letters, one word in the grid, and it sat at 17-Across in the New York Times Crossword on Friday, August 22, 2025 (Puzzle No. 27,681).
If you’ve been staring at it and second-guessing yourself, you’re not wrong — it’s one of the trickier long entries from that puzzle.
Table of Contents
Why “Fairy Tale Ending” Fits the Clue
The wordplay is cleaner than it looks on first pass:
- “Resolution” points to an ending, a conclusion
- “Ideal” signals something perfect, too good to be real
Put those two together and a fairy tale ending is exactly what you get — a flawless, happily-ever-after outcome. What makes this clue particularly sharp is that FAIRYTALEENDING was a debut entry, meaning it had never appeared in an NYT crossword before August 22, 2025.
The Puzzle: Friday, August 22, 2025
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Puzzle No. | 27,681 |
| Constructor | Gia Bosko |
| Editor | Will Shortz |
| Grid Size | 15×15 |
| Total Words | 68 |
| Grid Flow Score | 86.3 — 98th percentile of all Modern Era NYT crosswords |
Friday puzzles sit near the top of the NYT’s difficulty scale. They’re typically themeless, built on wide-open grids that demand clean, interconnected fill across long spans. That grid flow score of 86.3 puts this puzzle at the 98th percentile of all modern NYT crosswords — a technical benchmark that speaks to how smoothly the entire grid holds together.
Constructor: Gia Bosko
Gia Bosko is a newer name in NYT puzzle construction. This was her fifth published NYT crossword since her debut on February 28, 2023, and the first Friday slot she had received. The puzzle features two double-stacked rows of long answers, which is the kind of structural ambition that makes a 15×15 grid genuinely difficult to build cleanly. The flow score confirms she pulled it off.
Other Notable Answers From the Same Grid
Beyond the ideal resolution NYT clue, the August 22 puzzle had several other strong long entries worth knowing:
| Clue | Answer |
|---|---|
| “Disassemble in order to understand” | REVERSEENGINEER |
| “Reveal all” | RAISETHECURTAIN |
| “Be ruthless” | TAKENOPRISONERS |
| “Some nest eggs” | TRADITIONALIRAS |
| “Peacock’s display” | OSTENTATION |
| “Where many gather to form a line?” | BINGOPARLOR |
| “Steadfast” | UNDEVIATING |
| “Founding father who is the only Supreme Court justice to have ever been impeached” | SAMUELCHASE |
The Samuel Chase clue alone is the kind of deep historical knowledge that separates a Friday grid from an easier weekday puzzle.
One More Thing Worth Noting
FAIRYTALEENDING is not just a clean crossword answer — it’s a legitimate debut. Editors at The New York Times maintain one of the most competitive submission standards in American crossword publishing, and Will Shortz has held that standard for decades. A 15-letter debut entry that scores this cleanly in a Friday grid is the kind of thing crossword constructors spend years working toward.
Bosko got there in her fifth published puzzle.
Now go finish your grid.
