Here are the answers to the clues. (Thanks to Alconja in the Sphinx's Lair and boboquack here, for spotting #7 after I was unable to!) >! 1 CO-IGNITION >! 2 NOTING ICON >! 3 CITING COON >! 4 COINING TOO >! 5 ONGOING TIC >! 6 NO-GIN TONIC >! 7 NOTICING IO >! 8 I, COTTON GIN (!) >! 9 INTO COOING These have >! common letters INCOGNITO; and their extra letters, in order ... are also INCOGNITO. (Neat!) So presumably the intended final answer is >! INCOGNITO (although COGNITION, which is its anagram, *could* be an alternative answer).