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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?

Rand al'Thor
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skv
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4 Answers4

110

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.

Rand al'Thor
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warspyking
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  • Shame for the difference in languages, in dutch 'envelop' is 7 letters, but the english 'envelope' doesn't fit. – Tim Couwelier Oct 30 '14 at 17:00
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    Does a mailbox have a meaning, though? – Jasper May 06 '15 at 15:52
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    @Jasper The word itself does – warspyking Aug 18 '15 at 18:05
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    @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). – Jasper Aug 22 '15 at 19:08
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    @Jasper please see the tag lateral-thinking :) – warspyking Aug 22 '15 at 22:12
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    Lateral thinking is not an excuse for incorrect grammar... – Jasper Aug 23 '15 at 12:13
  • @Jasper Well than downvote the question for it being a poorly written question, not the answer :) – warspyking Aug 23 '15 at 14:11
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    Of course I wouldn't downvote the answer over something like this (and I never did), I just raised an issue that only arises within the context of the answer (even if it was the intended answer). – Jasper Aug 23 '15 at 14:33
  • @Jasper Just making sure. Wasn't accusing you of anything? – warspyking Aug 23 '15 at 17:26
  • This is my single best achievement and the votes go up every now and then (more and more) – warspyking Sep 29 '15 at 10:24
  • Reverting edit: http://meta.movies.stackexchange.com/a/83 – warspyking Sep 30 '15 at 02:03
  • @ffao Part of me wants to explain how I'm not allowed to spoiler it, another part of me decides not to complain because it's already upvoted a ton xD Why were you looking at the answers before solving it in the first place? It's clearly accepted. – warspyking May 16 '16 at 07:56
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    https://xkcd.com/169/ – Gareth McCaughan May 16 '16 at 20:13
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    (For the avoidance of doubt, that's a comment on the question and its intended answer, rather than on warspyking's correct identification of that answer.) – Gareth McCaughan May 16 '16 at 20:13
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    @Gareth I laughed so hard. – warspyking May 16 '16 at 22:18
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    @warspyking What does [movies.se]'s spoiler policy have to do with anything though? – Rand al'Thor Oct 01 '16 at 22:20
  • @rand al'thor A notification from a dead post by a guy who disappeared for a year. A rare occasion I'll never see again :O – warspyking Oct 02 '16 at 02:40
  • This answer is never going to die, I'm STILL getting upvotes for it lol – warspyking Oct 03 '16 at 18:26
97

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!

Rand al'Thor
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7

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.

Beastly Gerbil
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Aravind Suresh Thakidayil
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    this answer has already been submitted. If you can think of a unique answer please submit it but don't copy answers please. – Beastly Gerbil Jul 05 '16 at 16:38
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    @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). – Soha Farhin Pine Jul 02 '17 at 00:45
  • @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) – Beastly Gerbil Jul 02 '17 at 09:20
2

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.

y.self
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    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. – Gareth McCaughan Nov 24 '16 at 17:08
  • @GarethMcCaughan What is a word? – enzo Nov 23 '23 at 15:44
  • @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? – Gareth McCaughan Nov 24 '23 at 03:03