| 100% | DEAR | 4 | First word of some letters and diary entries |
| 55% | DEAR | 4 | First word of many diary entries |
| 48% | ONCE | 4 | First word of some fairy tales |
| 48% | SAO | 3 | First word of some Brazilian cities |
| 48% | CAFE | 4 | First word of some restaurant names |
| 47% | SAO | 3 | First word of some Brazilian city names |
| 47% | YESON | 5 | First words of some political yard signs |
| 46% | DEAR | 4 | First word of many letters |
| 46% | DEAR | 4 | First word of a letter |
| 45% | DEAR | 4 | First word of a business letter |
| 45% | DEAR | 4 | First word of a letter, often |
| 45% | DEAR | 4 | First word of many a letter |
| 43% | BANG | 4 | Sound suggested by the first letters of the words in 17-, 26-, 44- and 58-Across |
| 43% | IAM | 3 | First words of "Green Eggs and Ham" |
| 43% | TALE | 4 | First word of Celine Dion’s “Beauty and the Beast” |
| 43% | SUNSHINE | 8 | First word of #1 titles by Donovan and John Denver |
| 43% | FLIPFLOPPING | 12 | Switching positions, and a phrase spelled by the first letters of 12 words that have switched positions |
| 43% | DEAR | 4 | Common first word of a letter |
| 41% | ARMS | 4 | The first word of Virgil's Aeneid in some English translations |
| 41% | ODETO | 5 | First two words of some tribute poems |
| 40% | TSE | 3 | First Cyrillic letter of the word tsar |
| 40% | DOUBLE | 6 | It can precede the first words of 17-, 28-, 35-, 47- and 61-Across |
| 40% | SAW | 3 | Wise old saying ... like the first words of 20-, 32-, 41- and 52-Across |
| 40% | VERVE | 5 | Characteristic suggested by the first words of 17-, 20-, 36-, 55- and 60-Across |
| 39% | AFTER | 5 | Last word of the first verse of "Jack and Jill" |
| 39% | INITIALS | 8 | First letters of a first and last name |
| 39% | ERODED | 6 | Eaten away, like the first words of 17-, 31-, 48- and 65-Across in order? |
| 39% | STARTAFIRE | 10 | Ignite something ... or what the first words of 17-, 23-, 38- and 51-Across do? |
| 39% | EASE | 4 | Word that sounds like its first and last letters |
| 39% | OWE | 3 | Word that's a homophone of its first letter |