| 100% | BACKFIRE | 8 | To have the opposite effect of what was intended |
| 73% | BACKFIRE | 8 | Have the opposite effect from what was intended |
| 66% | BACKFIRES | 9 | Has the opposite outcome to what was intended |
| 50% | BACKFIRE | 8 | Have the opposite effect than intended on a plan |
| 45% | LATENESS | 8 | Result of pushing things back, and what's spelled out by eight letters that have been literally pushed to the back |
| 44% | HANDS | 5 | What are needed to play the last-word theme of the puzzle |
| 44% | POTOFGOLD | 9 | What is said to be found at the end of a rainbow |
| 44% | MEMORY | 6 | The power of recalling what has been learned |
| 44% | CATCHPHRASE | 11 | Popular expression ... or what the opposite of the answer to each starred clue is? |
| 43% | CARS | 4 | What the answers to starred clues are part of |
| 43% | SASS | 4 | What "Talk to the hand!" is an example of |
| 43% | ELVES | 5 | What the answer to each of the starred clues has |
| 42% | TRUCKDRIVER | 11 | What each of the answers to the starred clues once was |
| 42% | STATECAPITALS | 13 | What the answers to the starred clues are each anagrams of |
| 42% | OREOS | 5 | What the 10 longest answers have all been limited editions of |
| 42% | ONE | 3 | What the tangent of 45° is equal to |
| 42% | TAKETHEWRONGWAY | 15 | Misinterpret, or what is hidden in each of the answers to the starred clues? |
| 42% | MAGAZINES | 9 | What the starts of the answers to the eight starred clues are |
| 42% | HIP | 3 | What flower children of the sixties always wanted their parents to be |
| 42% | FRC | 3 | Govt. agcy. established in 1927 that was intended to regulate the airwaves of the day |
| 42% | ROUGHPATCH | 10 | Difficult time, or what is hidden in each of the answers to the starred clues? |
| 42% | RIDINGCROP | 10 | Jockey's tool, or a description of what's been done to the starred answers |
| 41% | ART | 3 | What we have "in order not to die of the truth," per Nietzsche |
| 41% | AIRPLANESEATS | 13 | What the ends of the answers to 20-, 26- and 42-Across are |
| 41% | LOCKHERROOM | 11 | What she did to not be bothered by the rest of the family? |
| 41% | CATS | 4 | What Grizabella and Skimbleshanks are, according to the title of a Broadway musical |
| 41% | IMO | 3 | "This is what I have to say," on the internet: Abbr. |
| 41% | GOLAST | 6 | Have the final turn, and what can be found in the answers to the starred clues? |
| 41% | PENNAMES | 8 | Writers' aliases, and what are found at the starts of the answers to the starred clues |
| 41% | BEETLE | 6 | Volkswagen model which has the record of being the first car to sell 20 million units |