Impostors Among Us
Answer: CURRANT
Eric Wei

There are 40 clues here. What else should we do, except solve them? Clues are alphabetical by answer.

  • Comedian Hall (7): ARSENIO
  • Infant (4): BABY
  • What you might say if it's really cold? (4): BRRR
  • Chicken wings seasoning named after a city (7): BUFFALO
  • Author Ta-Nehisi (6): COATES
  • Capital of Ohio (8): COLUMBUS
  • Head of a college department (4): DEAN
  • "Hotline Bling" singer (5): DRAKE
  • Archaic way to express outrage (3): FIE
  • Stare open-mouthedly (4): GAPE
  • Gather into storage (6): GARNER
  • A quarter of a pint (4): GILL
  • It secretes chemicals, like sweat, say (5): GLAND
  • Like Jennings in Jeopardy! or Gretzky in hockey (4, abbr.): GOAT
  • Carnage or bloodshed (4): GORE
  • Monty of Let's Make a Deal! (4): HALL
  • Concoct, as in a plan (5): HATCH
  • Bees produce it (5): HONEY
  • Chevy model originating in 1958 (6): IMPALA
  • Actor Carrey (3): JIM
  • What a detective follows (4): LEAD
  • Clicking on one might lead to a rickroll (4): LINK
  • First planet (7): MERCURY
  • Biblically, what Moses did to the Red Sea (4): PART
  • Hundredths of a pound (5): PENCE
  • Large equally-sized dots (5): POLKA
  • Short-sleeved, buttoned shirt (4): POLO
  • GLaDOS game (6): PORTAL
  • Halloween vegetable (7): PUMPKIN
  • 25 cents (7): QUARTER
  • Earthquake scale (7): RICHTER
  • Mexican sauce (5): SALSA
  • Eight notes in an octave, perhaps (5): SCALE
  • Often unintended, curved golf shot (5): SLICE
  • Related to sound (5): SONIC
  • Like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, in U.S. elections (5): SWING
  • Follow, as in a car chase (4): TAIL
  • Can, in British English (3): TIN
  • Hawaiian instrument, for short (3): UKE
  • An eye can be this to the soul (6): WINDOW

The mechanic is that these answers can be split into ten categories. Each category has three real words and one "impostor", which is one letter off of a real word satisfying that category. For instance, the words LEAD, MERCURY, and TIN are all elements. ARSENIO is one letter off of satisfying the category (ARSENIC). Categories are listed below, in (rough) order of difficulty:

Category Real words Impostor Wrong letter Right letter Real word
Elements LEAD, MERCURY, TIN ARSENIO O C ARSENIC
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters LINK, RICHTER, SONIC UKE U I IKE
Dances POLKA, SALSA, SWING JIM M G JIG
U.S. Vice Presidents GARNER, GORE, PENCE BRRR R U BURR
Parts of a fish GILL, SCALE, TAIL FIE E N FIN
European explorers COLUMBUS, DRAKE, POLO COATES A R CORTES
Bovids BUFFALO, GOAT, IMPALA GLAND G E ELAND
Terms of endearment BABY, HONEY, PUMPKIN DEAN N R DEAR
Portions of a whole PART, QUARTER, SLICE HALL L F HALF
Openings HATCH, PORTAL, WINDOW GAPE P T GATE

The real words have first letters from A to J. Order them as such:

Real word Wrong letter Right letter
ARSENIC O C
BURR R U
CORTES A R
DEAR N R
ELAND G E
FIN E N
GATE P T
HALF L F
IKE U I
JIG M G

Reading the letters, we find four words: ORANGE, PLUM, CURRENT, FIG. This is another set: three of these are fruits, and the fourth is one letter off of a fruit. The final answer is the last fruit, CURRANT.