This tedious challenge popped into my head the other day. How long a chain of words can you make by adding one letter at a time to a starting word? For example:

A > AN > PAN > PANS > PANTS > PLANTS > PLANETS
A > AN > CAN > CLAN > CLEAN > CLEANS > CLEANSE > CLEANSER > CLEANSERS

You’re not obliged to start from a single letter, but it provides some easy steps.

Alternative rules:

  • disallow pluralization
  • allow changing one letter, word-ladder style, but not twice in succession
  • allow removing a letter instead of adding one, without repeating words

Post your best chains in the comments – or don’t, because this genuinely isn’t a very interesting game.

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