Startling

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?



startling



remove the l, and the word becomes: starting
remove one t, and the word becomes: staring
remove the a, and the word becomes: string
remove the r, and the word becomes: sting
remove the other t, and the word becomes: sing
remove the g, and the word becomes: sin
remove the s, and the word becomes: in
remove the n, and the word becomes: I


How about

stringier

remove one r, and the word becomes: stingier
remove one i, and the word becomes: stinger
remove the t, and the word becomes: singer
remove the other r, and the word becomes: singe
remove the g, and the word becomes: sine
remove the e, and the word becomes: sin
remove the s, and the word becomes: in
remove the n, and the word becomes: I


There are also...

cleansers
splatters
drownings
wrappings
starvings
trappings


How about 10 letter words...

splittings



Source:
http://www.snopes.com/language/puzzlers/9letters.asp