| 100% | THEBESTTHINGSIN | 15 | With 62-Across, a caution to materialists |
| 64% | NICHOLAS | 8 | With 62 Across, Charles Dickens novel about a man trying to support his sister and widowed mother, featuring a Maine college |
| 63% | ARE | 3 | With 62 Across, a question of confirmation |
| 58% | LOOSE | 5 | With 62-Across, handyman's assortment, and a hint to what's in each set of circles |
| 56% | ELEMENT | 7 | With 62-Across, a key component of any good prank, and a hint to the beginnings of the prankster's tools herein |
| 56% | SOFTANIMAL | 10 | With 62-Across, oft-quoted phrase from Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" ... and a hint to this puzzle's theme |
| 54% | YELLOW | 6 | With 25 Across, caution, on a soccer pitch |
| 54% | KON | 3 | With 62-Across, a 1950 best seller |
| 53% | BUBBLEBUBBLE | 12 | With 72 Across, reason to call a plumber? |
| 53% | DONTGIVEUP | 10 | With 62-Across, words of caution |
| 53% | CELL | 4 | With 42 Across, device to send a text with |
| 53% | SWEET | 5 | With 62-Across, a possible title for this puzzle |
| 52% | LUCK | 4 | With 15 Across, party you might bring a dish to |
| 51% | WORKINGHARDOR | 13 | With 47 Across, facetious question to someone putting in a shift |
| 51% | WHEREOHWHEREHAS | 15 | With 62-Across, question in a children's song |
| 50% | WHITEHOUSE | 10 | With 50 Across, to whom Tom Hanks gave a 39 Across in 2017 |
| 49% | BHAGAT | 6 | With 62-Across, person in a 1923 case challenging citizenship eligibility |
| 49% | ONCE | 4 | With 62 Across, rehearsal request |
| 49% | PERFECTCUBE | 11 | 62-Across to a mathematician |
| 48% | DONTBIGEMPTY | 12 | With 45 Across, a query put to Bob Hope in 1939's The Cat and the Canary |
| 48% | WORLDSERIESWINS | 15 | 62-Across to a Yankees fan |
| 48% | PEPPERS | 7 | With 15 Across, illusion that uses a reflection to create the appearance of a phantom |
| 48% | SISTER | 6 | With 64 Across, Audre Lorde book... or a hint to this puzzle's circled letters |
| 47% | THANKSGIVING | 12 | With 49-Across, turkey, to a feaster |
| 47% | SMALL | 5 | With 62-Across, a trifling amount . . . and what’s found in four places in this puzzle |
| 47% | BLUE | 4 | Word with "bell" to make a purple bloom that is spread across North America |
| 47% | SEVEN | 5 | With 47-Across, a third way to make 60-Across |
| 47% | RUDOLPHTHE | 10 | With 57 Across, a more accurate way to describe the guy who works the mother of all night jobs? |
| 47% | HEBREWLETTERS | 13 | 62-Across to a student of Semitic languages |
| 47% | CHIN | 4 | With 67-Across, attachment to a string instrument |