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?

Jimf1234-ga,

Your word is "startling". The letter removal progression is listed below. 

startling
starting
staring
string
sting
sing
sin
in
I

Thank you for your interesting word puzzle. This puzzle appears in a
number of places, but I found the answer posted on a discussion board
at crimescene.com.

Crime Scene Discussion > The Coffee Shop > General Discussion > Game Zone
http://www.crimescene.com/board/lofiversion/index.php/t711.html

- Hammer


Search Strategy
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word "nine letters" remove

Good one!

You have got me thinking.

And millions of others, too, I guess.

Not for long though, Hammer-ga hit the nail on the head ;-)