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The word I seek is split into letters, each letter enclosed in a riddle below.
Each riddle will get harder as the number increases.
You know the length of my word, but what's the word? One letter wrong is likely to change the whole word!

Letter #1:

At the cross roads,
there's a twist down one path
and dead ends the rest.
there's one of me on every line

Letter #2:

You will be female without me,
But if I come I will let you walk out of here alive
I split to make a number of relevance to me

Letter #3:

With me you are will gain wisdom
But if you think you know it all your eyes will never see knowledge
Don't ditch me - I am as good as two of you

Letter #4:

The English language just wouldn't be the same without me
In the name of Englishmen, I present them all
And lag behind to help them with their language

Letter #5:

I am cousin of the square, though he be twice as large as me
Though I got half the score of my friend 'I' in my degree°
Lover of me or loather of me, this oath is over

What word am I and what does each riddle mean?

EDIT

Seeing as no-one of yet has letter #2, I'll put some emphasis on it:

OLD

You will be female without me,
But if I come I will let you walk out of here alive
I split to make a number of relevance to me

NEW

You will be female without me,
But if I come I will let you walk out of here alive
I double to make a number of relevance to me
In a chart of chemistry

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5 Answers 5

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A guess that the answer is

Towel

Letter #1:

At the cross roads,
there's a twist down one path
and dead ends the rest.
there's one of me on every line

T - A lower case t has three "dead ends" and one curved path. There are t's in each line of this micro-riddle.

Letter #2:

You will be female without me,
But if I come I will let you walk out of here alive
I double to make a number of relevance to me
In a chart of chemistry

O I honestly thought this was playing on the Y chromosome, as far as I know TYWEL is not a word. EDIT: Here's a try anyway... Bisecting an O with a line results in this Ø, which is the symbol for diameter. An o is a circle, so a diameter would be important to the letter o. This isn't it, but it was interesting and close enough for me to want to leave it in.

The Edits I think are correct:

NEW EDIT: I can only figure out part of the clue for #2, but O is the symbol for the element Oxygen, and its atomic number is 8, which can be made from two O's. AH- The Final Piece: SHE/SHOE, she being female (when O is removed) and a shoe letting you walk away. Major credit goes to Daphne B who cracked it while I was weekending away from the computer, but left the breadcrumbs for me to follow.

Letter #3:

With me you are will gain wisdom
But if you think you know it all your eyes will never see knowledge
Don't ditch me - I am as good as two of you

W - With a w you can spell wisdom, you can't spell knowledge without one, and it is literally two u's.

Letter #4:

The English language just wouldn't be the same without me
In the name of Englishmen, I present them all
And lag behind to help them with their language

E - English starts with an e, and language ends with one.

Letter #5:

I am cousin of the square, though he be twice as large as me
Though I got half the score of my friend 'I' in my degree°
Lover of me or loather of me, this oath is over

L - Two l's could be made into a square if one is rotated. I is a line of 180°, while an L has a 90° angle. L's are also in lover and loather.

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13
  • $\begingroup$ Try and get Letter#2 $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 15, 2016 at 21:30
  • $\begingroup$ I'll accept then $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 15, 2016 at 21:39
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Maybe the clue is referring to the similarity in shape to a certain piece of anatomy? $\endgroup$
    – Irishpanda
    Jan 15, 2016 at 22:01
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    $\begingroup$ So the "walking" clue and the "female" clue are related. If you remove the letter (which is O) from the middle of the thing-related-to-walking, you get the thing-that-means-female. I didn't want to post a whole answer since you did most of the work. $\endgroup$
    – Daphne B
    Jan 17, 2016 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ @DaphneB I think I got it now. Thanks for the tip and for keeping the vultures from circling around this; it was truly a noble deed. $\endgroup$
    – raisinghellyer
    Jan 19, 2016 at 17:38
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I only (think I) know two letters, but that's enough for a partial answer.

Letter #1:

t - the bend is at the bottom where the t curves in this font, the dead ends are the top and left/right. Each line of this section of the clue (for that matter, all the italicized sections) has a "t".

Letter #3:

w - with me you get "w"isdom because it begins with a w, and also w = double you = "as good as two of you"

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Good so far :) Keep going $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 15, 2016 at 21:07
3
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A partial answer here to add to the previous:

Letter #4:

E The English language starts with E, so definitely would be different without it. Also, when at the end of the word (when it "lags behind", the letter e changes how you pronounce other vowels in the sentence (e.g., hat vs. hate)

Letter #5:

L Capital L is roughly half a square. A straight line (l) could be said to have a 180 degree angle while a capital L has a 90 degree angle. Add L to over to get Lover, add L to oath to get Loath (similar to loather).

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Good again, not quite with the second half of Letter #4 $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 15, 2016 at 21:22
1
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Building on the other answers:

Towel

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4
  • $\begingroup$ you must give me the reason for Letter#2 before I can accept. $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 15, 2016 at 21:23
  • $\begingroup$ You are right though $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 15, 2016 at 21:23
  • $\begingroup$ in portuguese, masculine words have O as the definite article. therefore all words would be feminine without it $\endgroup$
    – Slepz
    Jan 15, 2016 at 21:54
  • $\begingroup$ sorry no - i'll edit the question to make it clearer $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 16, 2016 at 16:32
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Answer is: towel.

Reasoning for clue 2: 'Her' is female without 'o'. With it, becomes 'hero'. Not sure about the third line.

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3
  • $\begingroup$ A hero can be a female. $\endgroup$
    – Anthony Pham
    Jan 16, 2016 at 2:49
  • $\begingroup$ No - sorry your on the right track. $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 16, 2016 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ @PythonMaster Eh..heroine is female, not hero.. $\endgroup$
    – Chris
    Apr 19, 2016 at 9:41

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