The term 'fair to middling' is an idiom that means 'average or mediocre'. The crossword solutions for this term are 'TOLERABLE' (9 letters), 'MODEST' (6 letters) and 'synonym' (7 letters). TOLERABLE means 'acceptable but not good', MODEST means 'not excessive or extreme' and synonym means 'a word or phrase with the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or phrase'. Therefore, these three words can be used to describe something that is average or mediocre.