Braingle: 'Letter Removal' Brain Teaser

Letter Removal

Language brain teasers are those that involve the English language. You need to think about and manipulate words and letters.

Puzzle ID:	#2468
Fun:	(2.91)
Difficulty:	(3.02)
Category:	Language
Submitted By:	lil_thugsta
Corrected By:	juggler314

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?

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Comments

Mike1313 Mar 07, 2002	Very interesting, but impossible to guess if you haven't heard it before.
Cold As Ice Mar 08, 2002	there r hundreds and thousands of words...so its real hard
impy03 Mar 09, 2002	wow this one is confusing good job
guinny baby Mar 13, 2002	that was cool thanks
tell-UN-igent Mar 16, 2002	Overall, this is really good. It seems almost overwhelming to try and go through all the possibilities. Instead of going from a nine letter word and work down, I found it easiest to make all the possible one letter words first: A, I, and O (as in poetry, "Oh"). Then, I would move forward to Two letter words, etc. I still got stumped, though. Great job.
rose_rox Mar 23, 2002	I read that one before, though it was with a different word...
Mogmatt16 Apr 10, 2002	Finially, a teaser that made me think!
emilymonkeymaia Apr 12, 2002	Great one. Never heard it before.
Jaxzi Apr 13, 2002	I agree that this one is almost impossible to get too if you haven't heard it before. My suggestion would be to have given us the word, and asked us to figure out what made it unique and have the answer be that everytime you remove a letter another word remains. Still a good teaser to make you think.
mcscruffso Apr 14, 2002	Immense
nikixy Apr 16, 2002	briliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats about the best one ive ever heared . it was one of the only ones that made me think
Lilman_220 Apr 17, 2002	Yeah my teacher gave us this one to figure out, we finally got it in about an hour. HARDEST TEASER ON THE NET!!! Keep up the good work.
setzerknight Apr 20, 2002	This is unfair to me that haven´t english as my prime language.
FTM-Byau Apr 29, 2002	Thanks for this teaser. Finally I have I brain teaser which can knock out my Fast Track Maths Teacher. (He shows off a lot) His name, if you're intrested is Mr G (Mr Greenwood)
sarobot May 06, 2002	Really, really hard.
shyrou2002uk May 11, 2002	COOL
Tanya0 May 11, 2002	not very original there must be thousands of words that you can do the same with
SandPman May 11, 2002	Very good! The big questions is - is there another possible answer?
Missfilthy69 May 13, 2002	very hard needed to have more clues
Cunning_Linguist May 14, 2002	That's not the only one. How about "starlings"? -starlings ..starling ..staring ..string ..sting ..sing ..sin ..in ..i I'm sure there are others too, I'd just have to think about it. >=\
librashorty May 17, 2002	Well done.
enkilblue77 May 25, 2002	i got it right! cookie for me... try mine..."7 letter word"
Ballpointpen3132 May 28, 2002	What kind of word is startling?
doc_woody May 30, 2002	A good teaser, but close to impossible
starlust Jun 05, 2002	I thought you were supposed to remove the letters fromthe end, very confusing (anybody who wants to figure this out, better get a dictionary)
mad-ade Jun 08, 2002	SPARKLING -SPARKING- SPARING- SPRING- SPRIG- PRIG- PIG- PI- I.
melody Jun 14, 2002	Snowing would work.
wolvesheart Jun 20, 2002	Oops, wasted a lot of company time on that one... I was looking for a word that started with I, or A because I thought the removed letter had to come from the end of the word. Good one.
andy1608 Jun 29, 2002	Is more than one Startling, Startlings? If so, is that a 10 letter word you can do the same with. From Mad Ade's one, you can also get to Spearings. (Spearing, then sparing etc.) Top teaser. Chums at work loved it.
badbrian08 Jun 30, 2002	Nobody wants you around, DIRT!!
HurriFend Jul 03, 2002	I would like to take my hat off to lil thugsta, because he is the only person to submit a puzzle that would take a person with an I.Q. above 60 to solve. Then again, I'm not wearing a hat, so you're out of luck.
Liv1 Jul 05, 2002	This was very good! It just needed more clues since there were so many possibilties.
Bekki Jul 09, 2002	Grrrrr! I was tearing my hair out for 30 minutes before I got this!
ohcello Jul 12, 2002	Started from beginning letter..whoops
boytracy Jul 12, 2002	a-at-eat-heat-cheat-cheats-escheat-escheats hey, if somebody can get away with "prig", the phrase "common word" is open to subjective judgement. I had to look in the OED for that one too. As for the math whizzes who found this difficult, let them understand that there are different kinds of brain functions, and the ones who do math well are not usually the ones who do the more fuzzy stuff, like language well. This is more complicated logic since there is no framework for finding the answer, as the comments implied. But it does identify those who "think out of the box".
sk8babe Jul 17, 2002	WOW!! GD1!! I didn't get it but then aain I know i'm not that clever!! It's amazin! & it must b dat gd to get nice comments 4rom MogMatt16 & HurriFend!! How rare!!! Cunning_linguist - i guess the plural may be dodgy but well done and also to mad-ade, andy1608, and boytracy. But i don't get how snowing works melody? plz explain 2 me sum1!! =¬S
sk8babe Jul 17, 2002	*again not aain!!
RHPSRuLeS Jul 30, 2002	This was near impossble. There are so many nine letter words out there, how do u no if any other word wouldn't work? But that was pretty good.
(user deleted) Aug 07, 2002	hello boytracy!! u dont hv to be soo long!! but the teasers nice anyway!
majd Aug 18, 2002	A very interesting word, thanks.
dsquared Aug 22, 2002	Top teaser! but as already stated need to make clearer instructions. I found it frustrating trying to figure it dropping a letter of either end, only to discover you could pluck 'em from anywhere.
blinkgoddess182 Sep 18, 2002	a-at-eat-heat-cheat-cheats-escheat-escheats doesn't work because you take the s off of cheats to make escheat, and from what I gather, you can't arrange the letters.
blinkgoddess182 Sep 18, 2002	Oops, I mean re-arrange
stonemug Nov 05, 2002	You could also use the word WHAT. what, hat, at, a.
stonemug Nov 05, 2002	Disregard my last comment, I forgot about the 9 letters rule.
MysticGohan789 Feb 08, 2003	got this one wrong, i, like many others, thought that i had to start dropping the letters from the end of the word
griphook Feb 10, 2003	I thought I got the answer with the word SPLITTERS. splitter,slitter,litter,liter,lite,lit,it and I. Great idea though.
griphook Feb 10, 2003	I thought I got the answer with the word SPLITTERS. splitter,slitter,litter,liter,lite,lit,it and I. Great idea though.
icehaven Apr 04, 2003	I heard of this somewhere before. Still, it was very interesting.
krishnan Jun 09, 2003	Another solution. STRINGERS-STRINGER-STINGER-SINGER-SINGE-SING-SIN-IN-I
krishnan Jun 13, 2003	Yet another solution(Close to Griphook's). SPLATTERS-SPLATTER-PLATTER-LATTER-LATER-LATE-ATE-AT-A
krishnan Jun 13, 2003	A ten letter solution. STRANGLERS-STRANGERS-STRANGER-STRANGE-STRANG-STANG-TANG-TAN-AN-A.
tommo Sep 20, 2004	This is one of my favorite teasers. In th 10-letter solution I'm not sure STRANG is a word. My offering: Flatterys-Flattery-Flatter-Latter-Later-Late-Ate-At-A
Bridgette07 Sep 21, 2004	Clever! This one gave me a hard time.
ben2 Mar 23, 2005	Good, but there are too many other possibilities. strang is a word, "I strang the guitar yesterday"
SPUTNIK2 Feb 22, 2006	nice one!
FatBastid Oct 08, 2008	Plural of flattery would be flatteries... if this teaser was worded a bit differently I'd have guessed mailbox... a mailbox that contains n9ine letters is still a mailbox, and each time you remove a letter it remains the same so still a word... might be a new teaser in this one with a few variations... like, you can remove letters and leave the word the same, but if you remove numbers, eventually all the letters will be gone... good teaser, and interesting comments
emu77alu02 Oct 08, 2008	I've seen this one before, so it was easy (I would have never guessed it other wise) Interesting concept.
doehead Oct 08, 2008	No clue
malogalee Oct 08, 2008	TOO hard!! not a big fan of those kinds!!
katamaster Oct 08, 2008	Excellent. I noticed that you could also remove the second t before you removed the L and you would get starling (a type of bird).
auntiesis Oct 08, 2008	I didn't even try this one. The odds of finding the correct answer were astronomical if you didn't already know one of the possible answers.
UptheHill Oct 08, 2008	NICE 1!!
jcann Oct 08, 2008	I agree that this was way too vague the way it was presented. It would have been fun, interesting and doable if the nine letter word had been given and we had to make words by subtracting one letter at a time--or, if that is too easy, maybe the fourth or fifth word could be given and we could work in both directions. It's a good concept, though, and fun to see all the possibilites that others found.
IceSabre Oct 08, 2008	a - at - ate - late - later - latter - platter - splatter - splatters
elwxxxswimchick Oct 08, 2008	cool...
kp52 Oct 08, 2008	I think there are multiple answers. I don't get why people make teasers that have multiple answers to them. And say there is only one answer. Any way, Good teaser.
trickster2005 Oct 08, 2008	it was a great teaser, but to make it fair i think you should have made a hint in your clue, for example the answer would surprise you. The word surprise is a synonym for startle. This would also stop many of the comments that said -there are many words that fit-. just a suggestion.
bbbz Oct 09, 2008	got an 11! 1) i 2) in 3) sin 4) sing 5) singe 6) singer 7) stinger stringer 9) astringer (a person who trains and flies short-winged hawks, as the goshawk) 10) austringer (variant spelling of astringer) 11) austringers (plural)
bradon182001 Oct 09, 2008	I agree with auntiesis, too many possibilities to even find a starting point. Not enough hours in the day!! Sorry, but thanks for posting.
zaya Oct 09, 2008	Great concept, but it needs a starting point, otherwise too open-ended and time consuming
Babe Oct 08, 2011	Why would you bring back an old one from 2002 when everyone has said it is too hard and too many words to go through? Not much fun and way too to9ugh.
doehead Oct 08, 2011	AWOR. Get real A belated Happy Birthday to GW's daughter.
GWeb64 Oct 08, 2011	I was close I thought of Starlings who wished my daughter a happy b-day?
gaylewolf Oct 08, 2011	I've said it before and I'll say it again I LOVE THE COMMENTS!! Reading other people's love/hate reactions always amuse me - clever comments. Have a great weekend, friends! and GO TIGERS!
gaylewolf Oct 08, 2011	well, GWeb, it looks like it was that sweet fellow - Doehead!
GWeb64 Oct 08, 2011	uh thanks ,but I really meant how did they know my daughter had a b-day recently?
doehead Oct 08, 2011	To gweb. I'm very sneaky., so keep you eyes open.
HABS2933 Oct 08, 2011	Didn't have a clue, didn't even try. And as shown above with the 11 word example, there are alternate answers if anyone was so inclined to sit and figure them out. I however chose to make better use of my time. Maybe if it weren't a holiday weekend here and I didn't have a houseful of guests showing up in a couple hours I would have put forth more effort.
isis522 Oct 08, 2011	startling sparkling