| 100% | LOTHARIO | 8 | Character in 1702 Nicholas Rowe stage play The Fair Penitent whose name has come to mean any rake or libertine |
| 33% | XANTHIPPE | 9 | Wife of Socrates, whose name has come to mean any quarrelsome woman |
| 24% | STARRED | 7 | To have appeared as the lead in a movie or play |
| 22% | ESTRAGON | 8 | Major character in Samuel Beckett's stage play Waiting for Godot; the French name for a common herb |
| 22% | METS | 4 | MLB team that had the worst regular-season record of any team to play in the World Series |
| 21% | RONWEASLEY | 10 | The character Rupert Grint - whose birthday it is today - shot to fame playing in the "Harry Potter" series of films: 2 wds. |
| 21% | TORI | 4 | Character in "Victorious" whose name appears in the title |
| 21% | EQUALS | 6 | Comes to, or is the same as, in math |
| 21% | ARCHIERICE | 10 | Title character in 1957 John Osborne stage play The Entertainer |
| 21% | YENTE | 5 | Yiddish name that has come to mean “gossip” |
| 21% | ASIDE | 5 | Remark in a stage play intended to be heard by the audience alone, not the other characters |
| 20% | ELLE | 4 | Fashion magazine whose name means "she" or "her" in French |
| 20% | ELIZA | 5 | Character name in "Hamilton" or "My Fair Lady" |
| 20% | ASTEROID | 8 | Item such as Pitbull (which came within 25,000 miles of Earth in September) or the answer to any of the six starred clues |
| 20% | SUNNYVALE | 9 | California city whose name suggests it has fair weather / Worker in ... |
| 20% | BOYCOTT | 7 | Charles Cunningham —, land agent in Ireland whose surname has come to mean a refusal to do business with another party |
| 20% | DES | 3 | ___ Moines, Iowa city whose name means "of the monks" in French |
| 20% | OKEECHOBEE | 10 | Lake whose name means “big water” in the Hitchiti-Mikasuki language |
| 20% | ATARI | 5 | Company whose name comes from a term in the game Go |
| 20% | OURTOWN | 7 | Play in which the Stage Manager is a character |
| 20% | DENALI | 6 | Mountain whose name means "the tall one" in the Koyukon Athabascan language |
| 20% | TAHDIG | 6 | Crispy rice crust whose name means “bottom of the pot” in Farsi |
| 20% | OREGANO | 7 | Herb whose name translates to "brightness of the mountain" in Classical Greek |
| 20% | ATARI | 5 | Company whose name comes from a term in the game of Go |
| 20% | MINNEHAHA | 9 | Literary character whose name is said to mean "laughing water" |
| 20% | HERO | 4 | The lead character in a film or play |
| 20% | ESTRAGON | 8 | French name for the herb tarragon; character in Samuel Beckett's stage play Waiting for Godot |
| 20% | BLANCHE | 7 | ___ DuBois, lead female character in the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" |
| 20% | CLONE | 5 | Any of the characters played by Tatiana Maslany in "Orphan Black" |