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I am a seven letter word. If you remove one letter from me my meaning does not change. If you remove two letters from me my meaning still does not change, and if you remove three letters from me, my meaning still does not change.

Even if you remove all letters my meaning won't change. What word is this?

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4 Answers 4

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The answer is a postbox/mailbox because if you remove a physical letter from it, it remains a mailbox; its meaning is still to hold letters. You can remove all the letters, but it will still be a mailbox.

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    $\begingroup$ Does a mailbox have a meaning, though? $\endgroup$
    – Jasper
    Commented May 6, 2015 at 15:52
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    $\begingroup$ @Jasper The word itself does $\endgroup$
    – warspyking
    Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 18:05
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    $\begingroup$ @warspyking Though that was apparently what was intended, I still think that makes no sense. You remove the letters from the object and then the meaning of the word doesn't change. This interpretation requires "me" to refer to both things interchangeably, while they are definitely separate concepts. It would be like saying "if you cut me in half, my shape doesn't change" for a rope (after all, it's still a rope and the shape of the word definitely hasn't changed). $\endgroup$
    – Jasper
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 19:08
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    $\begingroup$ @Jasper please see the tag lateral-thinking :) $\endgroup$
    – warspyking
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 22:12
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    $\begingroup$ xkcd.com/169 $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented May 16, 2016 at 20:13
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NOTHING. The pronunciation of this in various accents could be rendered as NOTHIN' (one letter removed), NOT'IN' (two letters removed), or NOT'N' (three letters removed). And of course if you remove all the letters you're left with nothing!

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    $\begingroup$ Very creative indeed $\endgroup$
    – skv
    Commented Nov 16, 2014 at 23:35
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    $\begingroup$ @skv - Are you being sarcastic? This just sprang to mind as soon as I saw "if you remove all letters my meaning won't change". $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Nov 17, 2014 at 14:58
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    $\begingroup$ I think he was not being sarcastic, and I agree. Now am I being sarcastic? <grin> $\endgroup$
    – o0'.
    Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 15:57
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    $\begingroup$ @Lohoris Judging from your upvote, no, you're not being sarcastic ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 17:19
  • $\begingroup$ Is this the era before spoiler tags was a thing? (That is, except for the answer below this one) $\endgroup$
    – Ébe Isaac
    Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 4:15
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The answer is

NOTHING

Because:

if you remove "G", it becomes "NOTHIN" which has the same meaning, nothing. Remove N, it becomes "NOTHI" which means nothing. "I", "NOTH", which means nothing. "H", "NOT", which arguably does not make sense in this context. "T", "NO", somewhat similar. "N", nothing big.

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    $\begingroup$ this answer has already been submitted. If you can think of a unique answer please submit it but don't copy answers please. $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Commented Jul 5, 2016 at 16:38
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    $\begingroup$ @BeastlyGerbil No, his answer is different. At first glance, it might seem to be a duplicate of Rand al'Thor's answer, but it isn't. He means that nonsensical fragments of a meaningful word mean nothing. See, "NOT", which arguably does not make sense in this context. because it has a meaning. I thought the answer was very creative and original; I dont think this deserved that downvote (presumably by you). $\endgroup$
    – Soha Farhin Pine
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 0:45
  • $\begingroup$ @SohaFarhinPine it still submits the same answer. His explanation is it will always mean nothing and Rand says 'And of course if you remove all the letters you're left with nothing!' - same explanation - rand just adds some other stuff. (PS I haven't downvoted - the answer is currently at +2 -2) $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 9:20
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If we consider any random combination of 7 letters or characters of all existing writing systems, we will get not only all possible words with seven letters, but also get the words without meaning in any language (depends on the concept of word). So, any of the words resulting from the last group is a correct answer: Regardless of the letters that are removed from this word the meaning would not change, this meaning is, of course: NONE.

This leave us with: letters!/7!(letters-7)! - known_words, correct answers for this puzzle.

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    $\begingroup$ Unfortunately the puzzle begins "I am a seven-letter word" and what you are describing is 7-letter sequences that are not words. Neat idea, though. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Nov 24, 2016 at 17:08
  • $\begingroup$ @GarethMcCaughan What is a word? $\endgroup$
    – enzo
    Commented Nov 23, 2023 at 15:44
  • $\begingroup$ @enzo I assume you ask that question to make a point. Unfortunately I can think of at least two quite different points you might be making with it, to which I would give quite different answers. Would you like to be more explicit? $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 3:03

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