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This question already has an answer here:

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?

Hint 1:

The word before the letters are removed starts with the letter S.

Hint 2:

the last letter of the word before letters are removed is g.

Resource: https://www.riddles.com/1005 and my friend

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marked as duplicate by Bass, Rubio♦ Jan 31 '18 at 19:33

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

  • $\begingroup$ You said the hint in the puzzle itself as well... $\endgroup$ – puzzledPig Jan 31 '18 at 18:35
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    $\begingroup$ I do believe that this puzzle was on Snopes a while back. You probably should have cited snopes.com/language/puzzlers/9letters.asp $\endgroup$ – Dr t Jan 31 '18 at 18:38
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    $\begingroup$ This question (in its many variations) is a regular one on this site, there are multiple solutions even with the clues, at least both ROT13(fpenccvat) and ROT13(fgnegyvat) work. $\endgroup$ – Bass Jan 31 '18 at 19:23
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One answer is

STARTLING.

The words that can be made are:

Starling, staring, string, sting, sing, sin, in, and I.

I suspect this is not the only answer though. I'd be curious to see if anyone finds another...

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One word that fits the hints is...

startling. Removing letters gives starting, staring, string, sting, sing, sin, in, and I.

But there can be other 9-letter words that don't fit the specific hints. So far I've found...

1. growlings. Removing letters gives growling, growing, rowing, owing, wing, win, in, and I.

2. crownings. Removing letters gives crowning, crowing, ... (finish as above)

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