| POSTITNOTES | Sticky yellow squares ... or a description of the circled letters and what they follow? |
| HALMA | Game played using a board of 256 squares; or, a weighted long jump in the ancient Olympic pentathlon (5) |
| POSTIT | ___ Note (sticky yellow paper) |
| GOLDENSYRUP | Sticky yellow food (6,5) |
| PARTYMIX | What a DJ might create for a shindig, or a description of the circled letters |
| APOCKETFULLOFRYE | Picture A ... or, after switching the circled letters and reading the result phonetically, Picture B |
| DREAMSHAKE | Signature post move of Basketball Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon ... or an apt description of the circled letters in the grid? |
| CUTGLASS | Style of expensive stemware, or a description of the circled letters |
| HOUSEDIVIDED | "A ___ against itself cannot stand" (phrase in a speech by Pres. Lincoln, and description of the circled letters) |
| COLLEGEFINALS | End-of-semester exams or a description of the circled letters |
| LINE | A column of soldiers, crocodile of schoolchildren, queue of traffic, row of chessboard squares or other line-like formation; or, a dossier (4) |
| INONESENSE | Description of this puzzle's circled letters, and a clue to what they spell |
| URBANSPRAWL | Unrestricted city expansion ... and what begins in the circled letters (and ends in uncircled ones for you to find) |
| GRIMACESHAKE | McDonald's beverage that, when drunk, supposedly leads to ridiculous and frightening consequences (and a literal description of the circled letters) |
| LANDSLIDES | Earth movements, and a description of the circled letters |
| RISINGEDGES | Low-to-high transitions in digital signals, and an apt description of the circled letters |
| RSAILSPLITTER | Another nickname for Old Abe ... or a description of the circled letter? |
| TWO | Approximate shape of this puzzle's white squares ... and a synonym of the circled letters |
| HOPSCOTCH | A children's game involving retrieval of a stone from squares or oblongs marked on the ground (9) |
| BRAINROT | 2024 Word of the Year, per Collins Dictionary (just the shaded squares) or Oxford (the entire entry) |
