Nine-Letter Word, Common as Air

A nine-letter word, common as air,
When each letter’s cut, a new word to pare,
Take a letter each round and continue to one.
Name the word and the path and then you’ll be done.

Surprisingly, there are several nine-letter words that can have one letter removed in each round to make a new word all the way to one letter, which must be ‘a’ or ‘i’. Startling is the most common answer, but I’ve included the other words I’m aware of. I don’t include plural words, like cleansers, drownings, splatters, starvings, trappings and wrappings because it’s kind of cheating.

startling
Remove the l to make starting (or remove the t to make starling)
Remove the t to make staring
Remove the a to make string
Remove the r to make sting
Remove the t to make sing
Remove the g to make sin
Remove the s to make in
Remove the n to make I

splitting
Remove the l to make spitting
Remove the p to make sitting
Remove a t to make siting
Remove the first i to make sting
Remove the s to make ting
Remove the g to make tin
Remove the t to make in
Remove the n to make I

stringier
Remove the r to make stingier
Remove the i to make stinger
Remove the t to make singer
Remove the r to make singe
Remove the g to make sine
Remove the e to make sin
Remove the s to make in
Remove the n to make I

strapping
Remove the s to make trapping
Remove the t to make rapping
Remove the p to make raping
Remove the r to make aping
Remove the a to make ping
Remove the g to make pin
Remove the p to make in
Remove the n to make I

Posted in Riddles

No Thicker Than Your Finger

No thicker than your finger when it folds.
As thick as what it’s holding when it holds.

A sack.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

Snail Up The Wall

A snail creeps 10 feet up a wall during the daytime, then falls asleep. It wakes up the next morning and discovers it slipped down 6 feet. If this happens each day, how many days will it take to reach the top of a 20 foot wall?

Four days.

Day 1: up to 10, down to 4
Day 2: up to 14, down to 8
Day 3: up to 18, down to 12
Day 4: up to 22 (20 really) and done

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Word of Weather

Find this eight-letter word.

The first four letters are a variation of the weather.
The third through seventh letters give support but also could used when someone is executed.
And the last three letters forms the name of a person.

What’s the word?

Mistaken.

Mist = Variation of weather.
Stake = a tent stake or when someone is burned at the stake.
Ken = a person’s name.

Posted in Riddles

What Can You Add to One To Make It Go Away?

What can you add to one to make it go away?

The letter g. Then it’s gone.

Posted in Brain Teasers
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You’ll Have Me At Night

You’ll have me at night and if you remove the first letter I denote the top, such as on a train

Supper. You eat supper at night, and removing the first letter leaves upper. Thanks to Dude for figuring it out.

Posted in Riddles

Reflecting on Time

When a clock’s reflection is 2:30, what is the correct time?

9:30

Posted in Brain Teasers

Nine Matchbox Sticks To Ten

I have nine matchbox sticks and would like to make ten. How do I do it?

Arrange the nine matchbox sticks like so to make the shape of the number ten:

        _
    /| | |
     | |_|
Posted in Brain Teasers

A Ton of Fun

Use each clue to identify a famous person who last name ends in the letters T-O-N, like George Washington.

1. Friends star
2. Cotton Club bandleader
3. Batman and Beetlejuice lead
4. Blonde, buxom country music legend

Halfway there!

5. Steamboat developer
6. Author of The Age of Innocence
7. Found of a Kmart rival and a Club
8. She lead a news website called The (her last name) Post

1. Jennifer Aniston
2. Duke Ellington
3. Michael Keaton
4. Dolly Parton

Did you do well so far?

5. Robert Fulton
6. Edith Wharton
7. Sam Walton
8. Arianna Huffington

Posted in Brain Teasers

Made of Five Letters and Seven Letters

I’m made out of five letters,
And I’m made out of seven letters;
I have keys but I don’t have locks,
I’m concerned with time, but not with clocks.

What am I?

A piano. The word piano has five letters, and the scale on the piano is A through G, seven letters. The piano keys don’t have locks and playing piano requires you to keep time (but with a metronome, not a clock).

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