| 100% | TRICKY | 6 | With 21-, 30-, 49-, 61- and 74-Across, end of a Carrie Bradshaw quote that starts "Men in their 40s are like the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle ..." |
| 28% | PRIMEREALESTATE | 15 | Asset that's all about "location, location, location" ... with a hint to the starts of 21-, 26- and 49-Across |
| 27% | AARON | 5 | With 30-Across, New York Yankees slugger who was Time's Athlete of the Year in 2022 |
| 26% | DONUT | 5 | Treat whose varieties appear at the starts of four long answers and are represented a dozen times in this puzzle |
| 25% | PARTINGSHOT | 11 | End of a testy exchange, and what can be found four times in this puzzle, thanks to four black squares |
| 25% | IBELIEVEICANFLY | 15 | R. Kelly hit whose last title word is aptly rhymed with "sky" in the lyrics ... and a hint to the starts of the other four longest puzzle answers |
| 24% | LOLITA | 6 | About whom Nabokov said "She was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle - its composition and its solution at the same time" |
| 24% | YANKEES | 7 | New York ___, MLB team and member of the AL East division that is the team with the most World Series titles |
| 24% | SNL | 3 | Show that starts with a cold open sketch that ends with the phrase that includes "... from New York, it's ..." |
| 24% | DEADEND | 7 | Like jobs with no future ... and what the start of each answer to a starred clue can be? |
| 24% | COLDOPEN | 8 | Certain TV intro ... or a description of each of 12 letters in the grid (the starts of six Across entries and then six Down entries) that spell out an alternate title for this puzzle |
| 24% | COIN | 4 | With 55-Down, actions that can be performed nine times in this puzzle without affecting any of the clues? |
| 23% | FURNITUREASSEMBLY | 17 | Ikea task, and a task that can be applied to the sets of circled letters in this puzzle |
| 23% | WEAREFAMILY | 11 | Sister Sledge classic whose second line is "I got all my sisters with me," and a hint to the starts of 17-, 24-, 39-, and 49-Across |
| 23% | ELLIS | 5 | Island over which New York and New Jersey had a long-standing territorial dispute that was settled by the Supreme Court in 1998 |
| 23% | PATENTS | 7 | Sony's filing of a McDonald's commercial that can be ended by shouting "McDonald's!" at the screen, and the like |
| 23% | AFFIX | 5 | Add-on to the start or end of a word stem (as in 17-, 25-, 35-, 49- and 57-Across) |
| 23% | MANOWAR | 7 | Whom The New York Times co-named athlete of the year, with Babe Ruth, in 1920 |
| 23% | DIAGNOSIS | 9 | Documentary web TV series based on The New York Times Magazine column that was released in 2019 |
| 23% | ONETWOTHREEFOUR | 15 | Start of a count ... or the letter frequencies in 17-, 30-, 46- and 64-Across |
| 23% | THEJEFFERSONS | 13 | Sitcom set in New York city that was a spin-off of "All in the Family" (2 wds.) |
| 23% | DAILY | 5 | Like the New York Times mini puzzle |
| 23% | INASCRABBLEGAME | 15 | With 30- and 49-Across, test question to be answered by filling in the correct circle |
| 22% | GENRE | 5 | What the start of 17-, 29-, 45- or 61-Across is, in a bookstore |
| 22% | WHOLEHOG | 8 | With 49-Across, Southern cooking tradition that can be described by the transformation happening in this puzzle |
| 22% | WHATARACKET | 11 | "Boy, is that loud!" ... or a hint to the ends of 17-, 25-, 38- and 49-Across |
| 22% | CALLS | 5 | Word that can follow the starts of 17- and 61-Across and 10- and 30-Down |
| 22% | ASTER | 5 | Daisy-like flower that is a member of the sunflower family and blooms late in fall |
| 22% | BROOKLYN | 8 | New York City borough that produced all three of the rappers in this puzzle |
| 22% | SECRET | 6 | With 46-Across, some areas in Clue … or a hint to the first, fourth, twelfth and fifteenth rows of this puzzle |