| 100% | ELIDED | 6 | Like the "f" replaced by an apostrophe in "man-o'-war" |
| 45% | USE | 3 | By plugging in too many appliances at once the man blew a f___ |
| 42% | MAAM | 4 | Title with an apostrophe in the middle |
| 42% | MAAM | 4 | Palindrome with an apostrophe in the middle |
| 41% | AVERAGE | 7 | Like the man in the street |
| 41% | CORONAL | 7 | Like the ring in an eclipse |
| 41% | EVIL | 4 | Like the Empire in "Star Wars" |
| 41% | MAAM | 4 | Word of respect with an apostrophe in the middle |
| 41% | OLD | 3 | Like the man in a Hemingway title |
| 41% | ALLHERE | 7 | Like the gang, in an old song |
| 41% | APOGEAL | 7 | Like the highest point in an orbit |
| 41% | SOUR | 4 | Like the grapes in an Aesop tale |
| 41% | ALLTAKEN | 8 | Like the seats in an SRO performance |
| 41% | ACUTE | 5 | Like the angles in an equilateral triangle |
| 41% | NEWEST | 6 | Like the topmost emails in an inbox |
| 41% | MUDDLED | 7 | Like the orange in an old fashioned |
| 40% | LYIN | 4 | Like the eyes in an Eagles song title |
| 40% | SOUR | 4 | Like the grapes in a fable by Aesop |
| 40% | TIN | 3 | Like the man in Oz who wanted a heart |
| 40% | LORES | 5 | Like the graphics on an Atari 2600, in brief |
| 40% | STARRY | 6 | Like the night in an 1889 Van Gogh painting |
| 40% | STARRY | 6 | Like the sky in an 1889 Van Gogh painting |
| 40% | MALTESELIRA | 11 | Currency replaced by the euro in 2008 |
| 40% | LIRE | 4 | Currency replaced by the euro in Italy |
| 40% | TOLAR | 5 | Currency replaced by the euro in Slovenia |
| 39% | ACHILLES | 8 | Greek hero killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him in the heel with an arrow |
| 39% | SWAG | 4 | Slang term for an expert's rough estimate, purportedly first used by US Army General William Westmoreland in the Vietnam War |
| 39% | ODD | 3 | Like the number of cards in an Old Maid deck |
| 39% | EVEN | 4 | Like the left-side page numbers in an open book |
| 39% | MISSING | 7 | Like the letter O in this puzzle’s entire solution |