Words whose pronunciation remains the same with the last four letters removed
A friend told me that the English word queue is the only word whose pronunciation remains the same when the last four letters are removed.
I tried to think of others, but just couldn't. However, I don't feel this is true! (Just like when someone says the only word without rhymes is orange.)
I was wondering if anyone can help?
Edit: I am going to broaden things to allow more possibilities. The shortened version does not have to be an English word. For example, thorough and thoro I feel are close enough to count as removing three letters. Also, things like though and tho definitely count! (This is the best example so far by my standards.)
I think your friend is probably correct. Queue is an example of a word that is pronounced the same way as the name of its initial letter, and while there are other examples of that, none of them are 5 letters long.
- B - be, bee
- G - gee
- J - jay
- K - 'kay
- P - pee, pea
- T - tea, tee
The other possibility would be words which have a bunch of silent letters, and an alternate spelling without those letters, but I can't think of any with 4 silent letters that happen to occur at the end. (For example, you can remove one letter from colour without changing its pronunciation.)
Edit: there's through - thru, but that removes the last two letters plus one from the middle; and though - tho, which removes three letters (and ends up with a spelling that is only acceptable in limited contexts).
If proper names are allowed, then there are some good (3-letter-removal) examples among place-names with the suffix variously spelled borough or boro. There are, for instance, many Scarborough’s and at least one Scarboro; several Westborough’s and also several Westboro’s; and so on.
(In the UK, -borough names are also often abbreviated to -boro on road signs.)
If we look at removing interior letters as well, then Leicester vs. Lester and Gloucester vs. Gloster are also examples.