| 100% | THAT | 4 | Middle of five Shakespearean four-letter title words |
| 45% | TOMS | 4 | Middle word of a Stowe title |
| 45% | TETRAGRAM | 9 | Word of four letters |
| 43% | OWE | 3 | Word represented by the middle letter of 22-Down |
| 43% | PLEA | 4 | Word that, fittingly, contains all four different letters of APPEAL |
| 42% | TITAN | 5 | Giant ... with four of the five letters of "giant" |
| 42% | ARESO | 5 | Middle two title words of a Joe Cocker hit |
| 42% | TOY | 3 | First word in the titles of four Pixar movies |
| 41% | NEWS | 4 | First letters of the words hidden in the four longest answers |
| 41% | ALEPH | 5 | Starting word containing five of the letters of what it starts |
| 40% | COLECO | 6 | Old video game company whose first four letters match the middle four letters of 115 Across |
| 40% | GATTACA | 7 | 1997 movie title whose four unique letters represent the nucleobases of DNA |
| 39% | FINALCUT | 8 | Director's demand, and the last four or five letters of each starred answer |
| 39% | SMUT | 4 | Four letter word |
| 38% | IROCK | 5 | Boast formed by removing the middle two words of a popular Paul Simon song title |
| 38% | THU | 3 | Abbr. for a word also with abbrs. by its first four or first five letters |
| 38% | SALTY | 5 | Full of four-letter words |
| 37% | EMS | 3 | Middle of the alphabet letters |
| 37% | DIE | 3 | Word that appears in the titles of three Bond films (or four, if you count one ending in “s”) |
| 37% | LEAVENED | 8 | Unlike bread on Passover, and like four of the five sets of circled letters in this puzzle |
| 36% | LABOURS | 7 | Shakespearean title word |
| 36% | ADO | 3 | Shakespearean title word |
| 36% | TWO | 3 | Number in the middle of five Beverly Hills zip codes |
| 36% | TOA | 3 | Middle of the title of many an ode |
| 35% | SWEAR | 5 | Use a lot of four-letter words |
| 35% | WHOS | 4 | Title word of an Abbott and Costello routine |
| 35% | ABCD | 4 | First four letters of the alphabet |
| 35% | DEES | 4 | Middle letters of ''middle'' |
| 35% | ALAS | 4 | Shakespearean word of woe |
| 35% | IRAE | 4 | Title word of a song from Mozart's "Requiem" |