What nine-letter English word has the following properties?
If you remove one of its letters and leave all the remaining letters in the same order, the remaining eight letters form another English word. If you then remove another letter and leave all the remaining letters in the same order, you again are left with a word, this one with seven letters. If you repeat this exercise until you have just one letter remaining, you will have had a word at every step.
The answer is below the fold. But don’t cheat and then claim you came up with the answer yourself. We work on the honor system here, and you will be expelled from “The Monkey Cage” for any violation.
The word is startling.
Here’s the progression:
Startling
Starting
Staring
String
Sting
Sing
Sin
In
I