Claim: The English language has at least one nine-letter word that
remains a valid word as each of its letters is successively removed.
Status: True.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2006]
There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you
remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word - from nine letters
right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the
words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time?
Origins: The solutions to many of the linguistic puzzlers we receive involve
"tricks," such as knowledge of arcane words or correct interpretations of
misleadingly literal instructions, and some of the more frustrating puzzlers
don't really have solutions at all, so it's a pleasure for us to be able to provide
a definite, straightforward answer to at least one such query.
The English language has at least one nine-letter word that remains a word
as each of its letters is successively removed, right down to a single letter.
That word is "startling":
* startling
* remove the l, and the word becomes: starting
* remove one t, and the word becomes: staring
* remove the a, and the word becomes: string
* remove the r, and the word becomes: sting
* remove the other t, and the word becomes: sing
* remove the g, and the word becomes: sin
* remove the s, and the word becomes: in
* remove the n, and the word becomes: I
Our readers have suggested many other possible solutions to this puzzler,
some of which are equally valid, and some of which are disputed for various reasons.
Among the "equally valid" category, we have:
* stringier
* remove one r, and the word becomes: stingier
* remove one i, and the word becomes: stinger
* remove the t, and the word becomes: singer
* remove the other r, and the word becomes: singe
* remove the g, and the word becomes: sine
* remove the e, and the word becomes: sin
* remove the s, and the word becomes: in
* remove the n, and the word becomes: I
Keep thinking and thanking and do stay blessed.
www.westministries.org
Posted By:
Saturday, September 6th 2008 at 2:35PM
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