| 100% | THESISSTATEMENT | 15 | Sentence that often appears in the first paragraph of an essay |
| 45% | ANOA | 4 | Small Asian bovine that often appears out of the blue in crosswords |
| 44% | INTRO | 5 | First paragraph of an essay, informally |
| 40% | EDIT | 4 | Revise the first draft of an essay, say |
| 40% | STUART | 6 | First name of an E. B. White character who says that “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone” |
| 39% | UPON | 4 | Word in the first sentence of a fairy tale |
| 38% | NOR | 3 | Conjunction that often appears two words after "neither" in a sentence |
| 38% | PERSONALAD | 10 | Where "Desperately Seeking Susan" appears in the film of that name |
| 36% | NONE | 4 | First pronoun in the last paragraph of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address |
| 36% | OONA | 4 | Actress Chaplin who appeared in the first season of "Game of Thrones" |
| 36% | PTA | 3 | Grp. that often has its first meeting in the fall |
| 36% | INCA | 4 | Member of an empire that ended in the 16th century |
| 36% | EMMA | 4 | Title heroine described in the first sentence of her novel as "handsome, clever and rich" |
| 36% | EZRA | 4 | Book that begins "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia ..." |
| 36% | PARICUTIN | 9 | Volcano that suddenly appeared in the middle of a Mexican cornfield in 1943 |
| 36% | RONPAUL | 7 | Name in the news that's an anagram of OUR PLAN |
| 36% | ACORN | 5 | The hard nut of an oak tree that falls in autumn |
| 36% | GYMS | 4 | Businesses that often see an uptick in membership after the New Year |
| 36% | TOFU | 4 | Bean curd, that often takes the place of meat in vegetarian dishes |
| 36% | EOM | 3 | Abbr. in the subject of an e-mail that has no body |
| 35% | WHICH | 5 | Publication of the Consumers' Association that first appeared in October 1957 |
| 35% | WASP | 4 | Insect that first appeared in the Jurassic era |
| 35% | SCR | 3 | File extension of an app that kicks in after the PC's been inactive |
| 35% | STARINGCONTEST | 14 | Game that's over in the blink of an eye |
| 34% | DOLPHINS | 8 | Marine mammals that often appear in dreams |
| 34% | EAGLE | 5 | Bird that appears in the Great Seal on the back of a dollar bill |
| 34% | WILT | 4 | First name of the only player to score 100 points in an NBA game |
| 34% | TECHDEBT | 8 | The cost of implementing an easy solution that requires more work later, in programming |
| 34% | HORNS | 5 | They're often in front of the percussion section in an orchestra |
| 34% | RETURNADDRESS | 13 | It's often found in the upper-left corner of an envelope |