| 100% | DEATH | 5 | What Mary Oliver compared to “an iceberg between the shoulder blades” in a 1992 work |
| 33% | MEMORY | 6 | Answer to the riddle "I form in an instant and last a lifetime. What am I?" |
| 32% | SECRETHANDSHAKE | 15 | Greeting between members of an exclusive club, and what's hiding in the answer to the starred clues? |
| 32% | TIME | 4 | What's seen on a clock ... and an invisible ingredient for farmers to grow the crops you see in the puzzle |
| 32% | YOURATTENTIONPLEASE | 19 | Start of an announcement ... or a hint to what's hidden in the answers to the six starred clues |
| 31% | GETUP | 5 | “What’s with the ___?” (question to a friend in an unusual outfit) |
| 31% | OGRE | 4 | Creature compared to an onion in a 2001 animated-film classic |
| 30% | WITHERS | 7 | Part of a horse between the shoulder blades |
| 30% | FLATTIRE | 8 | What a fork in the road might lead to? |
| 29% | SNAPDECISION | 12 | What a person in an emergency might have to make |
| 29% | KEY | 3 | What you turn in the ignition switch to start a car |
| 29% | LAW | 3 | What the bill wants to be, in "I'm Just a Bill" |
| 28% | ODE | 3 | A lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject |
| 28% | FORUM | 5 | A funny thing happened on the way to this, in an old musical |
| 28% | CLUE | 4 | What leads you to an answer in a crossword |
| 28% | METOO | 5 | "Ditto!" (and a hint to what's in the grid-spanning answers) |
| 28% | LANDOWNER | 9 | What a freed slave was to become in an 1865 order that was eventually overturned |
| 28% | DYLAN | 5 | Bob ___, singer who covered the song "Take a Message to Mary" in 1970 |
| 27% | ROW | 3 | What to do "gently down the stream," in a song |
| 27% | SWAPMEET | 8 | Collectors' event, and a hint to what's hidden in the answers to starred clues |
| 27% | CANIGETANAMEN | 13 | "Anyone agree with me?" and a hint to what's hidden in the starred answers |
| 27% | JUICEUP | 7 | Supercharge, and a hint to what's literally hiding in the four longest Down answers |
| 27% | PARTYINTHEBACK | 14 | Mullet's defining feature, in a common saying ... or, literally, what the answers to the starred clues have in common? |
| 27% | BOX | 3 | Container (and, in a way, what you will find outlined by this year's clues related to the mega-meta) |
| 27% | CHAFF | 5 | What to separate the wheat from, in a saying |
| 27% | GRANDSLAMHOMERUN | 16 | What will cause a walk-off win in the situation described by the answers to the starred clues |
| 27% | TOSS | 4 | What they do to a coin in Netflix's "The Witcher" according to Jaskier the Bard's song |
| 27% | NATO | 4 | An alliance between American and European forces, that played a big part in the occupation of Afghanistan: Abbr |
| 27% | SEEDCAPITAL | 11 | Startup funds ... and a hint to what's hidden in the answers to the starred clues |
| 27% | DAILYJUMBLE | 11 | Popular newspaper puzzle, and a hint to what's hidden in the answers to starred clues |