[This is just a fun little puzzle for humans. We'll see you next time, computers!]
It's interesting to think about words contained in other words. How often do we notice, for example, that VOLCANOES contains the word CANOES, or that CONCERNS contains the word ONCE?
But why stop there? We can find words within words within words, nested like Russian dolls.
The most impressive nested series I've found are 9 levels, like this:
REARRANGEMENTS
ARRANGEMENTS
ARRANGEMENT
ARRANGE
RANGE
RANG
RAN
AN
A
But why be content with contiguous letters only? How about nested words in which the letters selected are not contiguous in the parent?
For example, REPUDIATE contains the word EDIT, only that the letters E-D-I-T are not necessarily contiguous.
(However, they must be in the same order in the child word as they are in the parent word.)
Here's how a nested series with noncontinuous letters might look. The starting word is NONREPRESENTATIONAL:
NONREPRESENTATIONAL
REPRESENTATIONAL
REPRESENTATION
PRESENTATION
S TATION
S TAT IN
S TA IN
S IN
IN
I
I.e., NONREPRESENTATIONAL, REPRESENTATIONAL, REPRESENTATION, PRESENTATION, STATION, STATIN, STAIN, SIN, IN, I
In each case below, I have given you the starting word. See if you can find the indicated number of nested levels.
Start with TRANSCENDENTALISTS and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with INTERRELATIONSHIPS and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with SLAUGHTERHOUSES and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with STARTLINGLY and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with INTEGRATIONISTS and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with NONCONFRONTATIONAL and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with NONDENOMINATIONAL and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with DECONSTRUCTIONISTS and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with CRAFTSPERSONS and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with CONTRAINDICATIONS and see if you can find 9 more nested levels
Start with RESTORATIONISTS and see if you can find 10 more nested levels
Start with UNCHARACTERISTICALLY and see if you can find 10 more nested levels
P.S. — I should have noted upfront that I construct my puzzles so as to be solvable with only very well-known words. (Otherwise, I risk incurring the wrath of the Scrabble community by casting aspersions on words like AE!)
Excellent work, @North @OmegaKrypton and @JonMarkPerry !
I was expecting someone to say, "How dare you malign AE! It's a perfectly cromulent word..."
Epilogue on #1:
Thank you for using the wonderful mathematical term TRANSCENDENTALS.
For those not comfortable with a word from a specialized field, here is an alternative solution:
TRANSCENDENTALISTS
TRANSCENDENTALIST
TRANSCENDENTAL
TRANSCENDENT
TRANSCEND
TRANCE
TRACE
RACE
ACE
A
Note on #7:
There still seems to be a typo in the solution for #7.
Here is another solution:
NONDENOMINATIONAL
DENOMINATIONAL
DENOMINATION
DOMINATION
DOMINION
DOMINO
DINO
DIN
IN
I
