What is the longest dictionary word you can spell where continuing to remove the final letter

Question

What is the longest dictionary word you can spell where continuing to remove the final letter will still result in a dictionary word.

e.g. ate [dictionary word], at [last letter 'e' removed still a dictionary word], a [last letter 't' removed]

No reason for this question, I am just curious.

A VERY nice puzzle, but not on topic. But, don't vote to remove it! — Fattie, Aug 19 '14 at 10:38
See Matryoshka words, with quite a few answers that match your question directly, or can be easily extended to match it. — RegDwigнt, Aug 19 '14 at 10:44
@RegDwigнt, Edwin Ashworth and Urbycoz. Really? This question is too broad? One answer, and that's proof there are too many possible answers. As for the Matryoshka words, the answers conclude/start with three-letter words and there are only two answers which kinda fit. Ack! No fun on ELU. — Mari-Lou A, Aug 19 '14 at 11:16
I may of picked the wrong exchange, Puzzling seems more appropriate. However, with this question been too broad seems incorrect as I'm only after one answer. — beetle120, Aug 20 '14 at 00:17

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 19 '14 at 13:58

2

My English companion came up with this clever solution when I was looking for the word that covered a horse's saddle, rein and bit during a private lesson

livery A distinctive uniform worn by the male servants of a household.
liver A large, reddish-brown, glandular vertebrate organ located in the upper right portion of the abdominal cavity that secretes bile
live To be alive; exist.
liv adj. being four more than fifty
Li The symbol for the element lithium, and a traditional Chinese measure of distance, today standardized at 500 meters
L The symbol for the Roman numeral 50.

edited Aug 19 '14 at 13:58

James Waldby - jwpat7

66,660

answered Aug 19 '14 at 07:58

Mari-Lou A

91,183

But that's not remove the last letter consecutively. The O.P. is looking for that order specifically. – Neeku Aug 19 '14 at 07:59
@Neeku I've changed my answer! :) – Mari-Lou A Aug 19 '14 at 10:28
Cool. (: I wonder if there's any other one longer than that. I sent an answer previously which I deleted later as soon as I noticed the O.P. wants the other way around from the end, and you can actually feed a dictionary to a code and make it find that for you. I don't have access to my own PC to try it. – Neeku Aug 19 '14 at 10:35
1

Man, I hate people who are that good with word puzzles! – Fattie Aug 19 '14 at 10:38
Roman Numerals and Elemental Symbols aren't English words. – Oldcat Aug 19 '14 at 21:15
@Oldcat They're words found in the dictionary, and English is crammed with foreign loan words. The OP asked for a dictionary words, no mention that they had to be Germanic. – Mari-Lou A Aug 19 '14 at 21:19
XIV isn't a loan word. It is a number. – Oldcat Aug 19 '14 at 21:44
The symbols represent numbers, which are spoken as words. If you disagree, perhaps this would make an interesting question on ELU? Are numbers words? I believe they are, regardless of how they're written be it 54, fifty-four or LIV. – Mari-Lou A Aug 19 '14 at 21:51
Cheating a little with the use of elements and roman numerals but a good answer all the same. I might move this question to Puzzling to see if there any more answers. – beetle120 Aug 20 '14 at 00:29

What is the longest dictionary word you can spell where continuing to remove the final letter

1 Answers1