| ALPHAANDOMEGA | The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (5,3,5) |
| FOREIGNLANGUAGE | What's left when you remove the first and last letters of the answers to starred clues |
| TICTACTOE | Pencil game that hints at this puzzle's theme, found in the first and last letters of 18-, 25- and 4 |
| ALPHABET | What the first and last letters of 13 answers in this puzzle proceed through |
| JENNIFERLOPEZ | On the Floor singer whose name's first and last letters sound like Jay-Z: 2 wds. |
| OMEGA | Award-winning variety of Phlox maculata, and last letter of the Greek alphabet (5) |
| INCAHOOTSWITH | Conspiring alongside (...first 3 letters and last letter) |
| THERESTISEASY | "You're over the hump" ... and a hint to the last letters of the words in 16-, 24-, 47- and 58-Across |
| ZEES | Last letters of the alphabet (in the US) (4) |
| FINALE | What's spelled by the last letters of the six long Across phrases |
| SEAANIMAL | Category whose name becomes that of an example of the category when you combine the first word and the last letter of the second word |
| BROKEN | With 49- Across, it keeps repeating itself ... and, based on the first and last letters, an apt description of each answer to a starred clue |
| OREO | Cookie in the shape of its first and last letters |
| TOPAZ | The first and last letters on the highest stone (5) |
| PALINDROMES | What the answers to the starred clues all are when their first and last letters are removed |
| AZORES | First and last letters to Rose out in the islands (6) |
| TEASE | First and last letters, you say, of 'torment' (5) |
| TEASEAPART | Carefully distinguish ... or a phonetic hint to the first and last letters of 17-, 26-, 48-, and 61-Across |
| EPSILONS | Fifth letters of the Greek alphabet |
| IOTAS | Ninth letters of the Greek alphabet |
