[EnigmaNZ]

Well done kitten. I couldn't think of a snake at all. We don't have snakes in NZ so no reason to be familiar with them. 'A' doesn't fit the criteria though as according to the rule it should drop 1 letter only so should be 2 letters.

Aspirin, sprain, Paris, rasp, asp, ?

A rasp is a coarse steel file used to file metal by say, a panelbeater.

Single article, bugger, as, ap, pa, ps, sp, sa ?? sa maybe?

Aspirin, sprain, Paris, rasp, asp, s.a.

Hold on, coarse file equally is wrong. It is coarse file, equally, single article.

Aspirin, sprain, Paris, rasp, asp, ?, A

but that is 7 words, or 6 words and a letter, ah, it doesn't say it has to be 6 enteries, just that it has to be 6 words, 'a' isn't a word.

So equally = as, ap, pa, ps, sp, sa. Haven't a clue. 'as' is the only recognised word from that field, so to take a leap of faith... ah, could be equally = 'as' as in 'same as..'

Aspirin, sprain, Paris, rasp, asp, as, A