| 100% | GIRL | 4 | With 10-Across and the circled letters, a best-selling novel, with "The" |
| 58% | CORNER | 6 | With 41-Across, corporate status symbol ... and a hint to the circled letters |
| 58% | THE | 3 | With 63- and 64-Across, privileged info, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 58% | ARTISTS | 7 | With 57-Across, creative getaway, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 55% | YOUR | 4 | With 37- and 39-Across, book and TV series on human evolution, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 55% | HIDDENFIGURES | 13 | 2016 Best Picture nominee ... or a hint to the circled letters in 20-, 25- and 43-Across |
| 54% | SQUARE | 6 | With 31-Down, hoedown activities, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 54% | SINKING | 7 | With 43-Down, uneasy anticipation ... and a hint to the circled letters |
| 54% | RISING | 6 | With 61-Down, global warming consequence, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 53% | ANDY | 4 | "Toy Story" boy ... or, with the circled letters, a hint to 20-, 39- and 53-Across |
| 53% | SHIFT | 5 | With 100-Down, change one's approach, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 53% | CUT | 3 | With the circled letters, a hint to solving seven Across clues |
| 52% | CROSSPARTYLINES | 15 | Act in a bipartisan way, and what the circled letters do Across and Down |
| 52% | THATSHALF | 9 | With 42-Across, encouraging words to someone making a good effort, and an apt description of this puzzle's circled letters |
| 51% | INONEEARAND | 11 | With 113-Across, heard but disregarded ... or a hint to interpreting the Across answers with circled letters |
| 50% | BASEBALL | 8 | With 49-Across, a hint to the circled letters |
| 50% | BADPENNY | 8 | With "a," someone undesirable ... and what's found in the circled letters? |
| 49% | SLICED | 6 | With 57-Across, deli offering ... or a hint to the circled letters |
| 48% | MONKEY | 6 | With the circled letters and 46-Across, playground keep-away game |
| 48% | TAKE | 4 | With 6-Across, go in a board game ... or what the circled letters do |
| 48% | END | 3 | With 72-Across, evasive strategy ... and a hint to the last several letters of the four longest Across answers |
| 47% | SECRET | 6 | With 35-Across, anonymous voting method, and a hint to each set of circled letters |
| 46% | STATIONBREAKS | 13 | Commercials, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 46% | SETTINGBACK | 11 | Delaying, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 46% | TILTA | 5 | With 37-Across, spinning amusement ride, and a hint to this puzzle's design and circled letters |
| 46% | ITSRAINING | 10 | With 63-Across, the opening lines to a nursery rhyme suggested by this puzzle's circled letters |
| 46% | MIXEDMESSAGES | 13 | Confusing statements ... and a hint to the circled letters |
| 46% | GRAINELEVATOR | 13 | Agrarian structure, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 46% | DIAMONDHEAD | 11 | Hawaiian landmark, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 46% | HIDDENEMOTIONS | 14 | Repressed feelings, and a hint to the circled letters |