Brain Teasers
Letter Removal
Language
Language brain teasers are those that involve the English language. You need to think about and manipulate words and letters.Language
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?
Answer
The base word is startlingstarting - staring - string - sting - sing - sin - in - I
starling - staring - string - sting - sing - sin - in - I
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Comments
Very interesting, but impossible to guess if you haven't heard it before.
there r hundreds and thousands of words...so its real hard
wow this one is confusing
good job
good job
that was cool thanks
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.
I read that one before, though it was with a different word...
Finially, a teaser that made me think!
Great one. Never heard it before.
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.
Immense
briliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thats about the best one ive ever heared . it was one of the only ones that made me think
thats about the best one ive ever heared . it was one of the only ones that made me think
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.
This is unfair to me that haven´t english as my prime language.
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)
His name, if you're intrested is Mr G (Mr Greenwood)
Really, really hard.
COOL
not very original there must be thousands of words that you can do the same with
Very good! The big questions is - is there another possible answer?
very hard needed to have more clues
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. >=\
I'm sure there are others too, I'd just have to think about it. >=\
Well done.
i got it right! cookie for me...
try mine..."7 letter word"
try mine..."7 letter word"
What kind of word is startling?
A good teaser, but close to impossible
I thought you were supposed to remove the letters fromthe end, very confusing (anybody who wants to figure this out, better get a dictionary)
SPARKLING -SPARKING- SPARING- SPRING- SPRIG- PRIG- PIG- PI- I.
Snowing would work.
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.
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.
Nobody wants you around, DIRT!!
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.
This was very good! It just needed more clues since there were so many possibilties.
Grrrrr! I was tearing my hair out for 30 minutes before I got this!
Started from beginning letter..whoops
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".
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".
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
=¬S
*again not aain!!
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.
Aug 07, 2002
hello boytracy!! u dont hv to be soo long!! but the teasers nice anyway!
A very interesting word, thanks.
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.
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.
Oops, I mean re-arrange
You could also use the word WHAT.
what, hat, at, a.
what, hat, at, a.
Disregard my last comment, I forgot about the 9 letters rule.
got this one wrong, i, like many others, thought that i had to start dropping the letters from the end of the word
I thought I got the answer with the word SPLITTERS.
splitter,slitter,litter,liter,lite,lit,it and I. Great idea though.
splitter,slitter,litter,liter,lite,lit,it and I. Great idea though.
I thought I got the answer with the word SPLITTERS.
splitter,slitter,litter,liter,lite,lit,it and I. Great idea though.
splitter,slitter,litter,liter,lite,lit,it and I. Great idea though.
I heard of this somewhere before. Still, it was very interesting.
Another solution. STRINGERS-STRINGER-STINGER-SINGER-SINGE-SING-SIN-IN-I
Yet another solution(Close to Griphook's). SPLATTERS-SPLATTER-PLATTER-LATTER-LATER-LATE-ATE-AT-A
A ten letter solution. STRANGLERS-STRANGERS-STRANGER-STRANGE-STRANG-STANG-TANG-TAN-AN-A.
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
Clever! This one gave me a hard time.
Good, but there are too many other possibilities.
strang is a word, "I strang the guitar yesterday"
strang is a word, "I strang the guitar yesterday"
nice one!
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
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
I've seen this one before, so it was easy (I would have never guessed it other wise)
Interesting concept.
Interesting concept.
No clue
TOO hard!! not a big fan of those kinds!!
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).
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.
NICE 1!!
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.
a - at - ate - late - later - latter - platter - splatter - splatters
cool...
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.
Any way, Good teaser.
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.
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)
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)
I agree with auntiesis, too many possibilities to even find a starting point. Not enough hours in the day!! Sorry, but thanks for posting.
Great concept, but it needs a starting point, otherwise too open-ended and time consuming
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.
AWOR. Get real A belated Happy Birthday to GW's daughter.
I was close I thought of Starlings
who wished my daughter a happy b-day?
who wished my daughter a happy b-day?
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!
well, GWeb, it looks like it was that sweet fellow - Doehead!
uh thanks ,but I really meant how did they know my daughter had a b-day recently?
To gweb. I'm very sneaky., so keep you eyes open.
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.
startling sparkling
Not enough time for this one this morning, going to watch the eclipse.
I am glad I read the comments first. I just saved myself a few brain cells. Whew that was close!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again * - the comments are what I find so amusing!! This was a tough puzzle, but thanks for posting. Bravo to those who tried to figure it out, and even found LONGER words that fit!
I guess my comments are repeats! Sorry!
I guess my comments are repeats! Sorry!
I stick by my comment back in 2014. I live in Santa Rosa, California and we have just experienced the worst fire in the history of our state. So many lives, and homes, and businesses lost to this terrible fire. I am one of the lucky ones that was able to evacuate until I could come back to my home without any harm to myself or my home!
God Bless you Babe.
I had no clue; this teaser is virtually impossible to solve the way it is set up. There are probably a lot of nine letter words that would work. This teaser would have worked better as a build up from a one letter word to a nine letter word with clues given for each word.
Babe, your story is heart breaking. Best wishes!
This is one of those teaser that if you know the answer, you're good to go, but if you don't it takes a lot of brain power to work your way through. Luckily, I already knew the answer.
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