| 100% | TENSE | 5 | Past, for the verb "were," e.g. |
| 70% | TAGLINE | 7 | "Reality is a thing of the past" for "The Matrix," e.g. |
| 63% | DWELL | 5 | Linger in the past, for e.g. |
| 60% | PRETERIT | 8 | Verb for the past |
| 56% | IRREG | 5 | Like the verbs "wear", "come", "kneel" and "to be", for short |
| 56% | TENSE | 5 | Past ___ (what the verb form "ran" is) |
| 55% | TERR | 4 | The Virgin Is., e.g. |
| 54% | BATTLESHIP | 10 | The USS Missouri, e.g., where the music video for Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" was filmed (HIT) |
| 54% | SKATE | 5 | Play for the Red Wings, e.g. |
| 54% | PDA | 3 | Kissing for the kiss cam, e.g. |
| 52% | NBC | 3 | Its musical ID is just the notes G, E and C |
| 52% | EAT | 3 | Verb whose past tense is formed by moving the first letter to the end |
| 52% | MEME | 4 | The "this is fine" dog, e.g. |
| 52% | TEASE | 5 | Verb for which synonyms can be found at the beginnings of the starred answers |
| 51% | LAMENT | 6 | "Ah, for the good old days," e.g. |
| 51% | ICON | 4 | Compass for the web browser Safari, e.g. |
| 51% | MIGRATES | 8 | Flies south for the winter, e.g. |
| 51% | EMCEE | 5 | Billy Crystal for the Oscars, e.g. |
| 51% | TERR | 4 | The U.S. Virgin Is., e.g. |
| 51% | REVERSAL | 8 | Change for the worse, e.g. |
| 51% | PREP | 4 | Practice for the GMAT, e.g. |
| 51% | MASCOT | 6 | Blooper for the Braves, e.g. |
| 51% | DUET | 4 | Song for The Carpenters, e.g. |
| 51% | ADAPTS | 6 | Rewrites for the stage, e.g. |
| 51% | ANAGRAM | 7 | Schoolmaster for the classroom, e.g. |
| 50% | OUTLINE | 7 | Rough sketch of what the actual plan might be, for e.g. |
| 50% | INVERSION | 9 | G-C-E for the chord C, e.g. |
| 50% | ARENA | 5 | TD Garden, for the 20-Across, e.g. |
| 50% | OWNER | 5 | Jerry Jones for the Dallas Cowboys, e.g. |
| 50% | DATE | 4 | January 1 for the Rose Bowl, e.g. |