| 100% | MORSE | 5 | With 44-Down, "key" invention of the 1830s |
| 62% | BARCELONA | 9 | With 44-Down, site of the 1992 Olympics |
| 54% | MIDDLE | 6 | With 44-Down, educational stage ... or a hint to the contents of 18-, 22-, 47- and 53-Across |
| 50% | PETER | 5 | Saint with the Keys of Heaven |
| 50% | SAM | 3 | With 51 Down, host of the politics podcast "The Majority Report" |
| 50% | ZAPPA | 5 | Musician Frank with the Mothers of Invention |
| 50% | OFMICE | 6 | With 44-Down, biography of Walt Disney? |
| 50% | DRY | 3 | With 44-Down, decay of building timbers |
| 49% | SLEDDING | 8 | The act of sliding down a small hill with snow |
| 49% | IONIC | 5 | With 44-Down, features of some Greek architecture |
| 49% | SANTA | 5 | With 44-Across, Eartha Kitt Christmas song with the line, "Hurry down the chimney tonight" |
| 48% | XMARKS | 6 | With 40-Across, key to the "map" of this puzzle |
| 48% | OLDSCHOOL | 9 | Not down with the new ways of doing things |
| 48% | NEBRASKA | 8 | Location of the 44-Down |
| 47% | BUTTONING | 9 | Fastening with discs, down the front of a cardigan |
| 47% | SAINT | 5 | With 79 Down, canonized Norwegian king and the namesake of a Minnesota college |
| 47% | COLD | 4 | With 44-Down, conflict between 7-Down and the 34-Down |
| 47% | ASSETMANAGER | 12 | Adviser concerned with the starts of 20-, 31- and 44-Across |
| 47% | CRAZY | 5 | With 44-Across, Oglala Lakota leader who helped win the Battle of the Little Bighorn against General Custer |
| 46% | TAPIOCA | 7 | With 44-Down, the "bubble" in bubble tea |
| 46% | PLANE | 5 | Invention of the Wright brothers |
| 46% | PINE | 4 | With 44 Down, bat application |
| 46% | DNA | 3 | With 44 Down, genomics tool |
| 46% | TED | 3 | With 44 Down, "Cheers" actor |
| 45% | SPARE | 5 | Act of knocking down all the pins with two balls in tenpin bowling |
| 45% | DYNAMITE | 8 | Invention of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel |
| 45% | PERFECTTIMING | 13 | Musical work idealizing the CEO of Apple, using the key with one 63-Across? |
| 44% | DAILY | 5 | With 72-Across, the end of 20-, 37-, 44- or 59-Across |
| 44% | NANCY | 5 | With 44-Across, golfer who was named both LPGA Rookie of the Year and LPGA Player of the Year in 1978 |
| 44% | JENNIFER | 8 | With 44-Across, actress who won an Emmy Award for playing Tanya McQuoid on the first season of "The White Lotus" |