| 100% | EARLIEST | 8 | Like the first in the room |
| 71% | SILENT | 6 | Like the first "d" in "Wednesday" |
| 70% | NEMEAN | 6 | Like the beast in Hercules' first labor |
| 69% | SOMBER | 6 | Like the mood in a losing locker room |
| 68% | TENTH | 5 | Like the first extra inning in a baseball game |
| 65% | NEMEAN | 6 | Like the lion slain in Hercules' first labor |
| 64% | ONEANDDONE | 10 | Like a team that loses in the first round |
| 64% | SWUM | 4 | Like the English Channel for the first time in 1875 |
| 62% | SINGULAR | 8 | Atypical ... or like the first word in the answer to 18-, 24-, 51- or 62-Across |
| 62% | ELOCUTIONPHRASE | 15 | Exercise in pronunciation ... like the first words of the answers to the starred clues |
| 61% | ERODED | 6 | Eaten away, like the first words of 17-, 31-, 48- and 65-Across in order? |
| 60% | BYRONIC | 7 | Like moody Romantic heroes, as first described in the works of a British lord |
| 59% | SATIRIC | 7 | Like the humor in The Onion |
| 59% | AVERAGE | 7 | Like the man in the street |
| 59% | ARID | 4 | Like the climate in the desert |
| 59% | TROPICAL | 8 | Like the climate in the Caribbean |
| 59% | NOUN | 4 | What "man" first seems like in the sentence "The old man the boat" |
| 58% | RECUT | 5 | Like the 1997 Special Edition of “Star Wars: A New Hope,” in which Greedo shoots first |
| 58% | FASTER | 6 | Like the tortoise in the fable, ultimately |
| 58% | OXYGENATED | 10 | Like the blood in the pulmonary veins |
| 58% | NUDE | 4 | Like the athletes in the ancient Olympics |
| 58% | RED | 3 | Like the circle in the 7Up logo |
| 58% | CUPPED | 6 | Like the hands in the Allstate logo |
| 58% | TWILIT | 6 | Like the sky in the early evening |
| 58% | AWAY | 4 | Like the winning team in every World Series game, for the first time ever (October, 2019) |
| 58% | LEMUR | 5 | Monkey relative that sings "I Like to Move It" in the first Madagascar movie |
| 57% | STAINED | 7 | Like the domes in the Chicago Cultural Center |
| 57% | APT | 3 | Like the name of Justice Mary Yu, officiant of the first same-sex marriages in Washington State |
| 57% | AIRSTHEIRDIRTYLAUNDRY | 21 | The athlete in the locker room … |
| 57% | PEOPLEOFNOTE | 12 | Luminaries like the eight featured in this puzzle? (hint: look at their first few letters) |