Word Downsizing

Solution

It was a hard challenge, so we've got just a few correct solutions. Some of them were just partially correct - they had a correct starting word, but some of their intermediate words weren't real English words. Some of them were correct, but they used plurals; this isn't too good if the respective singulars of these words exist. 

Below we show the best solution to this puzzle and several more solutions we've got from you.

The best possible word to this puzzle is STARTLING. It gives eight more words as follows:

This unique variant is shown in Martin Gardner's book Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers.

Some Solutions by Philippe Guglielmetti

replanted, replated, related, elated, elate, late, ate, at, a
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restarted, restated, restate, estate, state, sate, ate, at, a
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streambed, streamed, steamed, teamed, tamed, tame, tam, am, a