| 100% | COMMONWEALTH | 12 | Formal title of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the US |
| 41% | RAINIER | 7 | Mount —, volcano and highest mountain in the state of Washington, US |
| 41% | PADUCAH | 7 | City in Kentucky, US, at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers |
| 40% | REALGAR | 7 | Rare orange-red mineral that occurs in Romania and the US state of Utah |
| 39% | SDAK | 4 | Only U.S. state in which the name of the state and its capital share no letters: Abbr. |
| 38% | TULSA | 5 | City in the US state of Oklahoma |
| 38% | NSA | 3 | Body in charge of security and surveillance in the U.S.: Abbr. |
| 37% | PORTLAND | 8 | Biggest city in the US state of Maine |
| 37% | ILIAMNA | 7 | — Lake, largest in the US state of Alaska |
| 37% | HBCU | 4 | The oldest in the U.S. is Cheyney University of Pennsylvania |
| 37% | CHICAGO | 7 | Most populated city in the US state of Illinois |
| 36% | HOWARD | 6 | John —, prison reformer who wrote 1777 book The State of Prisons in England and Wales |
| 36% | ERIE | 4 | Pennsylvania city in the northwest corner of the state |
| 36% | POWELL | 6 | U.S. secretary of state raised in the Bronx |
| 36% | BRO | 3 | Popular term of address among men in the US and New Zealand |
| 36% | SMITH | 5 | Most common surname in the U.S. (ahead of Johnson and Williams) |
| 36% | KANSAS | 6 | US state where Dorothy lives in the Wizard of Oz |
| 36% | MEXICO | 6 | US state with the name of country in it, New __ |
| 36% | DAKOTA | 6 | Word in the names of two US states |
| 36% | COUNTY | 6 | Largest division of a state in the US |
| 35% | MOHAWK | 6 | Largest tributary of the Hudson River in the state of New York, US |
| 35% | ELM | 3 | American ___ (shade tree that's the state tree of North Dakota and Massachusetts) |
| 35% | STRANGE | 7 | Curtis —, US golfer; winner of the US Open Championship in 1988 and 1989 |
| 35% | OHIO | 4 | State with four of the 100 largest cities in the US |
| 35% | CAROLINA | 8 | The US has a North and South version of this state |
| 35% | COUNCILHOUSING | 14 | Part of the welfare state in the U.K. |
| 35% | WABASH | 6 | River in the title of Indiana's state song |
| 35% | LTD | 3 | Counterpart of Inc., in Canada and the U.K. |
| 35% | ABANDONED | 9 | Deserted, and the title of the second novel in 27-Across's "Donovan" series |