| 100% | RIPE | 4 | Like an avocado with a slight give |
| 51% | MEALY | 5 | Like an apple with a bad texture |
| 49% | WORMY | 5 | Like an apple with a hole in it, perhaps |
| 48% | INACAST | 7 | Like an arm with a fracture that needs to heal: 3 wds. |
| 46% | FIRM | 4 | Like a mattress with little give |
| 46% | OVER | 4 | Like a relationship with an ex |
| 46% | EAVED | 5 | Like a roof with an overhang |
| 45% | INUSE | 5 | Like an airplane lavatory with a lit "Occupied" sign: 2 wds. |
| 45% | ONEWAY | 6 | Like a street with an arrow sign |
| 45% | PLATONIC | 8 | Like a relationship with an ex, maybe |
| 45% | LEAP | 4 | Like a year with an extra day |
| 45% | TIED | 4 | Like a game with an even score |
| 45% | LAME | 4 | Like a horse with an abnormal gait |
| 44% | STEEP | 5 | Like a mountain with an almost perpendicular face |
| 43% | WRONG | 5 | Like a test answer with an "x" next to it |
| 43% | YESNO | 5 | Like a question with only an affirmative or negative answer |
| 43% | MACCHIATO | 9 | A name given to an espresso with some foamed milk |
| 42% | REMODEL | 7 | Give a facelift, like an architect |
| 42% | TRAGIC | 6 | Like a play with an unhappy ending, such as "Romeo and Juliet" |
| 41% | DEW | 3 | It "shines with a mournful light, like its own tear," in an Andrew Marvell poem |
| 41% | AHEADOFTHECOUNT | 15 | With a slight advantage |
| 40% | OVAL | 4 | Shaped like an avocado |
| 40% | SEA | 3 | With 13-Down, water dweller that looks like a plant but is actually an animal |
| 40% | XZIBIT | 6 | Rapper with an MTV show … whose name sounds like a word meaning "show" |
| 39% | ELITE | 5 | Like an A-lister |
| 38% | RIPE | 4 | Like an avocado that's soft but not mushy |
| 38% | ROLLINGIN | 9 | With 84-Across, like an audience during a stoner movie? |
| 38% | LINOLEUM | 8 | Type of flooring with a slight bounce |
| 38% | LIVETV | 6 | Broadcast with a slight tape delay, paradoxically |