This clever spelling puzzle asks: What 7-letter word becomes “LONGER” when you remove its third letter?
The answer is: LOUNGER.
The word LOUNGER contains seven letters. Its third letter is U. Remove that U and the remaining letters spell:
LONGER.
The puzzle is fun because the word “longer” usually describes something increasing in length, so many people initially search for a logical or physical explanation. But the answer is purely about spelling.
LOUNGER → remove the third letter U → LONGER.
Once you write the letters out, the transformation is easy to see. The challenge is recognizing that the instruction should be taken literally rather than trying to interpret “longer” as a comparison of size.
