1000 Riddles With Answers (Easy, Funny, Hard, Tricky & Math Riddles)

Riddles are not just fun little questions. They help you think, stay sharp, and be creative. Anyone can enjoy them—kids, parents, or adults who love a good challenge. Riddles can build your vocabulary, improve problem-solving, and make any conversation more fun.

There’s something for everyone in this huge list of 1,000 riddles with answers. You’ll find easy riddles, tricky riddles, math riddles, logic riddles, and fun questions that you can share with friends. Each group is easy to follow, so you can choose puzzles by level or theme.

Be prepared. From quick and easy riddles to difficult brain teasers, this collection has all the puzzles you need.

Contents

Easy Riddles With Answers

Simple Easy Riddles for Kids

Here are the list of 50 easy riddles with answers:

What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock
What has a face but no eyes or mouth?
Answer: A clock
What has legs but cannot walk?
Answer: A table
What has a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin
What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel
What has keys but can’t open doors?
Answer: A piano
What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold
What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age
What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle
What has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river
What has a mouth but never talks?
Answer: A river
What runs but never walks?
Answer: Water
What has ears but cannot hear?
Answer: A cornfield
What has wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck
What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge
What do you get when you cross a snowman and a vampire?
Answer: Frostbite
What kind of coat can you only put on when it’s wet?
Answer: A coat of paint
What has a thumb and four fingers but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove
What has many teeth but can’t bite?
Answer: A comb
What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole
What can travel around the world while staying in one corner?
Answer: A stamp
What belongs to you, but others use it more?
Answer: Your name
What kind of room has no doors or windows?
Answer: A mushroom
What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle
What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain
What animal can jump higher than a house?
Answer: Any—houses can’t jump
What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A telephone
What do you break every time you say it?
Answer: Silence
What has towns but no houses, rivers but no water, and forests but no trees?
Answer: A map
What has four legs but can’t walk?
Answer: A chair
What gets sharper the more you use it?
Answer: Your brain
What has branches but no fruit or leaves?
Answer: A bank
What has many keys but no locks?
Answer: A keyboard
What can you hold without using your hands?
Answer: Your breath
What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin
What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: Your tongue
What has an end but no beginning?
Answer: A stick
What has two hands but no arms?
Answer: A clock
What building has the most stories?
Answer: A library
What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light
What is easy to lift but hard to throw?
Answer: A feather
What lives in winter, dies in summer, and grows with its roots upward?
Answer: An icicle
What type of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: A palm
What goes through keys but doesn’t open anything?
Answer: A piano
Which month has 28 days?
Answer: All of them
What has stripes and goes “meow”?
Answer: A tiger
What has wings but cannot fly?
Answer: A penguin (or airplane without fuel)
What is black and white and read all over?
Answer: A newspaper
What has words but never speaks?
Answer: A book
What has a spine but no bones?
Answer: A book

Easy Object Riddles With Answers

Riddles With Answers

What has a lock but no key?
Answer: A keyboard
What has a heart but doesn’t beat?
Answer: A lettuce
What has a spine but isn’t alive?
Answer: A book
What has wheels but is not a car?
Answer: A shopping cart
What has two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A clock
What has a lid but no box?
Answer: A trash can
What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A phone
What has a bark but no bite?
Answer: A tree
What has a head but no body?
Answer: A nail
What can be cracked, made, told, and played?
Answer: A joke
What has a stem but no flower?
Answer: A wine glass
What has a key that doesn’t unlock anything?
Answer: A map key
What has a lid, but you can’t put anything inside it?
Answer: Your eyelid
What has teeth but can’t eat?
Answer: A saw
What has a seat but cannot sit?
Answer: A bicycle seat
What has stripes but isn’t a zebra?
Answer: A barcode
What has four legs and a back but no head?
Answer: A chair
What has a shell but is not an animal?
Answer: A nut
What has a horn but can’t honk?
Answer: A rhinoceros statue (or a musical horn without sound)
What has a roof but no walls?
Answer: A car
What has a frame but no picture?
Answer: Glasses
What has a knob but no door?
Answer: A radio knob
What has a seat and pedals?
Answer: A bicycle
What has pages but is not a book?
Answer: A calendar
What has a neck that you can’t grab?
Answer: A bottle
What can break without touching it?
Answer: A promise
What has arms but can’t hug?
Answer: A jacket
What can you open but not close?
Answer: An egg
What has a blade but no handle?
Answer: Grass
What has numbers but can’t count?
Answer: A clock
What has a cover but no pages?
Answer: A pillowcase
What has holes but still holds your body?
Answer: A chair (its backrest has holes)
What has a chain but no bike?
Answer: A necklace
What has a bottom but is not pants?
Answer: A bottle
What has a shell and can be cracked?
Answer: A nut
What has a light but no switch?
Answer: The sun
What has a cover and lives on the bed?
Answer: A pillow
What has a head, a body, and a tail but no legs?
Answer: A coin
What has a button but no shirt?
Answer: A remote control
What has legs but always stays still?
Answer: A bed
What can you shake, but it never spills?
Answer: A Polaroid photo
What has a handle but cannot be held?
Answer: A door handle (you hold it, but the riddle trick is “you can’t hold it forever”)
What can’t talk but replies when spoken to?
Answer: An echo (object-like riddle)
What has feathers but cannot fly?
Answer: A pillow
What has a door but never opens?
Answer: A jar
What has a tube but isn’t a TV?
Answer: A toothpaste tube
What has a lid but no pot?
Answer: A trash bin
What has a window but no house?
Answer: A train
What has a wheel and can float?
Answer: A ship’s steering wheel
What has two sides but is only one thing?
Answer: A coin

Classroom Easy Riddles for Students

Riddles With Answers

What has a lot of words but never speaks?
Answer: A book
What has lines but no paper?
Answer: A notebook
What has numbers but cannot count?
Answer: A ruler
What has a point but no tip?
Answer: A pencil point after it’s broken
What has pages but no cover?
Answer: A worksheet
What has squares but is not a window?
Answer: Graph paper
What tool writes but never thinks?
Answer: A pencil
What needs to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: A sharpened pencil lead
What has a ring but is not a phone?
Answer: A binder ring
What helps you see through words?
Answer: Glasses
What has a board but no chalk?
Answer: A keyboard
What has a pen but no ink?
Answer: A fountain pen without a cartridge
What is full of answers but can’t take a test?
Answer: A textbook
What can be erased but never forgotten?
Answer: Chalk on a board
What has a class but no teacher?
Answer: A classroom when empty
What has desks but no students?
Answer: A furniture store
What keeps a student’s secrets?
Answer: A locker
What has a lock but no key?
Answer: A school locker
What has a spine and chapters but no body?
Answer: A book
What has a cap but no head?
Answer: A pen cap
What object is used to solve problems but creates none?
Answer: A calculator
What helps you measure but can’t measure itself?
Answer: A ruler
What tool sticks but never stays stuck?
Answer: Tape
What object can go up and down but stays in the same place?
Answer: A classroom window*
What has a mouth but never talks?
Answer: A backpack zipper
What holds many things but has no hands?
Answer: A backpack
What has a cover but doesn’t sleep?
Answer: A textbook
What has little desks inside but isn’t a classroom?
Answer: An advent calendar (funny variant)
What can show you answers but never tests you?
Answer: A teacher’s guide book
What always comes before success?
Answer: The word “success” in the dictionary
What has a pen that doesn’t write?
Answer: A pig pen
What object goes up when the rain comes down?
Answer: An umbrella
What can you write on but never erase?
Answer: The internet
What has a notebook but doesn’t take notes?
Answer: A laptop
What has buttons but isn’t clothing?
Answer: A calculator or keyboard
What has rings but isn’t jewelry?
Answer: A binder or a notebook
What helps you reach the top shelf?
Answer: A step stool (common in classrooms)
What goes to school every day but never learns?
Answer: The school building
What has windows but no curtains?
Answer: A school bus
What has a bus but no driver?
Answer: A toy school bus
What is always in class but never answers a question?
Answer: The chalkboard
What carries history but isn’t a historian?
Answer: A history book
What gets shorter the longer you use it?
Answer: A pencil
What dries out when it works?
Answer: A marker
What object falls but never hits the ground?
Answer: The temperature
What gets sharper the more you use it in school?
Answer: Your brain
What has subjects but no students?
Answer: A school schedule
What rings but isn’t a phone?
Answer: The school bell
What helps everyone learn but never speaks?
Answer: A whiteboard
What object in school has a tongue but can’t taste?
Answer: A shoe

Daily Life Easy Riddles

Riddles With Answers

What has a door but never opens?
Answer: A refrigerator in a picture
What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A phone
What gets hot but never sweats?
Answer: The sun
What shines but isn’t a star?
Answer: A flashlight
What has a head but never thinks?
Answer: A hammer
What can you spread but never eat?
Answer: A rumor
What can crack but is not an egg?
Answer: A mirror
What has a key but no lock?
Answer: A password
What has legs but stays in one place?
Answer: A table
What do you buy to eat but never eat?
Answer: A plate
What has a roof but no walls?
Answer: A bus stop shelter
What has fingers but cannot type?
Answer: Gloves
What has a lid and keeps things cold?
Answer: A cooler
What has a face and shows time?
Answer: A clock
What runs but has no legs?
Answer: A refrigerator
What has a mouth but doesn’t eat?
Answer: A sink drain
What has skin but no bones?
Answer: A drum
What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow
What gets bigger the more you fill it?
Answer: A balloon
What gets smaller the more you use it?
Answer: A bar of soap
What has a back and a seat but no legs?
Answer: A couch
What can you open with your voice?
Answer: A voice-activated device
What tells stories without speaking?
Answer: A photo album
What follows you everywhere but never touches you?
Answer: Your shadow
What can you see but never touch?
Answer: The horizon
What can be full but never spills?
Answer: Your mind
What has a window but no glass?
Answer: Your computer screen
What falls down but never breaks?
Answer: Night
What breaks but never falls?
Answer: Day
What blows but doesn’t breathe?
Answer: The wind
What gets dirty but washes others?
Answer: Water
What has a lid but doesn’t cover a pot?
Answer: A trash can
What grows when you feed it but dies when you water it?
Answer: A fire
What can you pour but never drink?
Answer: Rainwater
What has strings but isn’t a puppet?
Answer: A guitar
What can you tie but never see?
Answer: A tie in a game
What has a head and tail but no legs?
Answer: A coin
What can you put in a bucket to make it lighter?
Answer: A hole
What always stays in a corner but travels the world?
Answer: A stamp
What gets cold when it’s hot?
Answer: Air conditioner
What is eaten at night but not in the morning?
Answer: Dinner
What has eyes but cannot see?
Answer: A potato
What goes up when the sun goes down?
Answer: The moon
What has keys but no doors?
Answer: A piano
What can melt but is never hot?
Answer: Ice
What do you throw out when you need it and take in when you don’t?
Answer: An anchor
What turns but doesn’t move?
Answer: Milk turning sour
What can you break by saying it?
Answer: Silence
What moves without legs and whispers without a mouth?
Answer: The wind
What freezes but is never cold?
Answer: A computer

Funny Riddles With Answers

Silly & Corny Funny Riddles

Riddles With Answers

Why did the math book look sad?
Answer: Because it had too many problems.
Why can’t a bicycle stand up by itself?
Answer: It’s two-tired.
What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
Answer: Nacho cheese.
Why did the scarecrow win an award?
Answer: He was outstanding in his field.
Why don’t eggs tell jokes?
Answer: They’d crack each other up.
Why did the cookie go to the hospital?
Answer: It felt crumby.
Why was the computer cold?
Answer: It left its Windows open.
Why did the tomato turn red?
Answer: It saw the salad dressing.
What do you call a sleeping bull?
Answer: A bulldozer.
What do you call a bear with no teeth?
Answer: A gummy bear.
What kind of music do mummies listen to?
Answer: Wrap music.
Why don’t skeletons fight each other?
Answer: They don’t have the guts.
Why did the student eat his homework?
Answer: The teacher said it was a piece of cake.
What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?
Answer: A carrot.
Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants?
Answer: In case he got a hole in one.
Why was six afraid of seven?
Answer: Because 7 ate 9.
What do you call a fake noodle?
Answer: An impasta.
Why don’t oysters share their pearls?
Answer: Because they’re shellfish.
What do you call a pig that does karate?
Answer: A pork chop.
Why did the bicycle fall over?
Answer: It was two-tired.
Why did the picture go to jail?
Answer: It was framed.
What did the zero say to the eight?
Answer: Nice belt!
Why can’t your nose be 12 inches long?
Answer: Because then it would be a foot.
What kind of key opens a banana?
Answer: A monkey.
Why was the math teacher suspicious of her graph paper?
Answer: She thought it was plotting something.
Why are ghosts terrible liars?
Answer: Because you can see right through them.
What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary?
Answer: A thesaurus.
Why did the man run around his bed?
Answer: He was trying to catch up on sleep.
What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck.
Why did the frog take the bus to work?
Answer: His car got toad away.
What do you get when you cross a snowman and a dog?
Answer: Frostbite.
Why don’t melons marry?
Answer: Because they cantaloupe.
Why did the banana go to the doctor?
Answer: It wasn’t peeling well.
Why was the broom late?
Answer: It swept in.
Why do bees have sticky hair?
Answer: Because they use honeycombs.
What do you call a can opener that doesn’t work?
Answer: A can’t opener.
Why don’t seagulls fly over the bay?
Answer: Because then they’d be bagels.
What did one plate say to the other?
Answer: Lunch is on me.
What kind of room has no walls?
Answer: A mushroom.
Why did the barber win the race?
Answer: He knew a shortcut.
Why did the computer go to the dentist?
Answer: It had Bluetooth.
Why was the stadium so hot?
Answer: All the fans left.
Why did the music teacher need a ladder?
Answer: To reach the high notes.
Why was the belt arrested?
Answer: It held up a pair of pants.
Why did the orange stop halfway across the road?
Answer: It ran out of juice.
What did the big flower say to the little flower?
Answer: Hi, bud!
Why did the book join the police?
Answer: It wanted to go undercover.
Why did the man throw his clock out the window?
Answer: He wanted to see time fly.
Why was the calendar so popular?
Answer: It had a lot of dates.
Why do cows wear bells?
Answer: Because their horns don’t work.

Animal & Food Funny Riddles

What do you call an alligator who works undercover?
Answer: An investigator.
What do you call a cow with no legs?
Answer: Ground beef.
Why do fish live in saltwater?
Answer: Because pepper makes them sneeze.
What do you call a pig that knows karate?
Answer: A pork chop.
Why don’t elephants use computers?
Answer: They’re afraid of the mouse.
What do you call a bear with no ears?
Answer: “B!”
Why did the chicken go to the séance?
Answer: To talk to the other side.
Why did the cow cross the road?
Answer: To get to the udder side.
Why don’t crabs give to charity?
Answer: Because they’re shellfish.
What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?
Answer: A dino-snore.
What do you call a dog magician?
Answer: A labracadabrador.
What do you call a fish with no eyes?
Answer: Fsh.
Why did the banana go out with the prune?
Answer: Because it couldn’t find a date.
Why did the cookie cry?
Answer: Because his mother was a wafer so long.*
What type of key opens a banana?
Answer: A monkey.
Why did the tomato turn red?
Answer: It saw the salad dressing.
Why are frogs so happy?
Answer: Because they eat whatever bugs them.
Why did the duck get a timeout?
Answer: It was being a little quackers.
What animal needs to wear a wig?
Answer: A bald eagle.
What do cows read at the library?
Answer: Moospapers.
Why don’t bananas snore?
Answer: Because they don’t want to wake the bunch.
What do you call a cow that plays an instrument?
Answer: A moo-sician.
Why was the cat scared of the tree?
Answer: Because of its bark.
What do you call a sheep covered in chocolate?
Answer: A candy baa.
Why did the grape stop in the middle of the road?
Answer: It ran out of juice.
What kind of lion doesn’t roar?
Answer: A dandelion.
Why don’t chickens like school?
Answer: Because they always get eggs-cited.
Why was the fish accepted into school?
Answer: It passed its swimming test.*
What do you call a bear caught in the rain?
Answer: A drizzly bear.
Why do mushrooms get invited to parties?
Answer: Because they’re fungi.
Why don’t cats play poker in the jungle?
Answer: Too many cheetahs.
What do you get when you cross a cow and a trampoline?
Answer: Milkshake.
Why was the duck laughing?
Answer: It was quacking up.
Why did the orange stop rolling?
Answer: It ran out of juice.
Why was the lettuce embarrassed?
Answer: It saw the salad dressing.
What do you call a dog on the beach?
Answer: A hot dog.
Why did the fish blush?
Answer: It saw the ocean’s bottom.
What do you call a dinosaur that never gives up?
Answer: A try-ceratops.
Why did the cow start a band?
Answer: It had the moo-sic in its blood.
Why do gorillas have big nostrils?
Answer: Because they have big fingers.*
What do you call a bee that can’t make up its mind?
Answer: A maybee.
Why did the banana wear sunscreen?
Answer: It didn’t want to peel.
What do you call a lazy kangaroo?
Answer: A pouch potato.
What do you call a sheep that sings?
Answer: A baa-baa shop singer.
Why do cows sit on fences?
Answer: To watch the moo-vie.
Why was the peanut laughing?
Answer: It was a little nuts.
Why did the turkey join the band?
Answer: It had drumsticks.
What do you call cheese that’s sad?
Answer: Blue cheese.
Why did the lobster refuse to share?
Answer: Because it was shellfish.
Why do fish always know how much they weigh?
Answer: They have their own scales.

Short Funny Riddles

Riddles With Answers

What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck.
Why did the man put his money in the blender?
Answer: He wanted liquid assets.
Why did the computer go to sleep?
Answer: It needed a power nap.
What kind of tree fits in your hand?
Answer: A palm tree.
Why did the cookie go to the doctor?
Answer: It felt crumby.
Why did the bicycle collapse?
Answer: It was two-tired.
What do you call a lazy kangaroo?
Answer: A pouch potato.
Why don’t eggs like jokes?
Answer: They crack up too easily.
What do you call a cow in an earthquake?
Answer: A milkshake.
Why did the tomato turn red?
Answer: It saw the salad dressing.
Why did the man run around the bed?
Answer: He wanted to catch up on sleep.
What’s brown and sticky?
Answer: A stick.
What has ears but can’t hear?
Answer: A cornfield.
What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole.
Why don’t skeletons fight?
Answer: They don’t have the guts.
What has many teeth but can’t chew?
Answer: A comb.
What do you call fake pasta?
Answer: An impasta.
Why can’t your nose be 12 inches long?
Answer: Because then it would be a foot.
Why did the golfer bring extra socks?
Answer: In case he got a hole in one.
What do you call a man with no body and no nose?
Answer: Nobody knows.
What do you call a boomerang that won’t come back?
Answer: A stick.
Why did the belt go to jail?
Answer: It held up pants.
What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence?
Answer: Time to get a new fence.
What has one eye but cannot see?
Answer: A needle.
What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
Why was the broom late?
Answer: It swept in.
What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?
Answer: A carrot.
Why was the math book sad?
Answer: Too many problems.
What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold.
Why did the banana visit the doctor?
Answer: It wasn’t peeling well.
Why did the chicken sit in the shade?
Answer: It didn’t want to be a hot chicken.
What building has the most stories?
Answer: A library.
What has keys but can’t open locks?
Answer: A piano.
Why did the kid bring a ladder to school?
Answer: He wanted to go to high school.
Why was the computer cold?
Answer: It left its Windows open.
Why did the scarecrow get promoted?
Answer: He was out-standing in his field.
Why did the apple stop in the middle of the road?
Answer: It ran out of juice.
What kind of room has no windows or doors?
Answer: A mushroom.
Why did the musician carry a broom?
Answer: To sweep the music charts.
Why did the man sit on his watch?
Answer: He wanted to be on time.
Why are spiders great web designers?
Answer: They make great webs.
Why can’t a leopard hide?
Answer: Because he’s always spotted.
Why do bees hum?
Answer: Because they don’t know the words.
Why don’t seagulls fly over the bay?
Answer: Because then they’d be bagels.
What did the big flower say to the small flower?
Answer: Hi, bud!
What did one wall say to the other wall?
Answer: I’ll meet you at the corner.
What kind of bird sticks to things?
Answer: A vel-crow.
Why did the pencil go to the doctor?
Answer: It had a little lead problem.
Why did the phone wear glasses?
Answer: Because it lost its contacts.
Why did the cookie sit under the tree?
Answer: Because it felt crumby.

Hard Riddles With Answers (Tough Riddles)

Hard Logic Riddles

Riddles With Answers

A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner, “I’m bankrupt.” Why?
Answer: He’s playing Monopoly.
You see a boat filled with people, yet there isn’t a single person on board. How?
Answer: All the people are married.
What disappears as soon as you say its name?
Answer: Silence.
A man was born in 1990 and died in 2010, yet he died at age 80. How?
Answer: 1990 and 2010 are room numbers, not years.
A doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every 30 minutes. How long will they last?
Answer: 1 hour (0 min, 30 min, 60 min).
What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M.
If you drop me, I’m sure to crack. But give me a smile, and I’ll smile back. What am I?
Answer: A mirror.
What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water?
Answer: A map.
A man leaves home, turns left three times, and returns home to find two men with masks. Who are they?
Answer: The catcher and umpire (baseball).
What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, and a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river.
What has many keys but cannot open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
Two fathers and two sons go fishing. They catch three fish—one for each of them. How?
Answer: They are grandfather, father, and son (three people).
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
A woman is sitting in her room at night with no lights or lamps on. There is no moonlight. Yet she is reading a book. How?
Answer: She’s blind and reading Braille.
What can travel around the world while staying in one corner?
Answer: A stamp.
If you have one, you want to share it. Once you share it, you don’t have it. What is it?
Answer: A secret.
What has one eye but can’t see and often brings bad weather?
Answer: A hurricane.
A man shaves every day, yet he still has a beard. How?
Answer: He is a barber.
What has no beginning, end, or middle?
Answer: A circle.
What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence.
A man looks at someone’s photo and says, “Brothers and sisters, I have none. But this man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the photo?
Answer: His son.
What belongs to you, but everyone else uses it more?
Answer: Your name.
What has a tongue but cannot talk and gets sharper the more you use it?
Answer: A shoe.
A man stands on one side of the river, his dog on the other. He calls the dog and it crosses the river without getting wet. How?
Answer: The river is frozen.
What gets whiter the dirtier it gets?
Answer: A chalkboard.
What building has the most stories?
Answer: A library.
A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and left on Friday. How?
Answer: His horse’s name is Friday.
What has hands but can’t hold anything?
Answer: A clock.
What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light.
A girl drops an egg onto a concrete floor. It doesn’t break. Why?
Answer: Concrete floors are very hard to break.
What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: “Short” (add –er).
What has a head, a tail, but no body?
Answer: A coin.
You see me once in June, twice in November, but not at all in May. What am I?
Answer: The letter “E.”
How much dirt is in a hole that is 3 feet deep and 6 feet wide?
Answer: None—it’s a hole.
What goes up and down but does not move?
Answer: Stairs.
A man goes out in heavy rain with no umbrella but does not get a single hair on his head wet. Why?
Answer: He’s bald.
What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole.
What has a neck but no head and two arms but no hands?
Answer: A shirt.
A man dies of old age on his 25th birthday. How?
Answer: He was born on February 29 (Leap Day).

Genius-Level Hard Riddles

A man looks at a painting and says, “I have no brothers or sisters, but that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the painting?
Answer: His son.
A girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each brother has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many boys and girls are in the family?
Answer: 4 girls and 3 boys.
You are in a room with three light switches and a closed door. The switches control three light bulbs in the next room. You may only enter the room with bulbs once. How do you find which switch controls which bulb?
Answer: Turn on switch 1 for a few minutes, then turn it off and turn on switch 2. Enter the bulb room: the hot bulb = switch 1, the lit bulb = switch 2, the cold and off bulb = switch 3.
A farmer has to take a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across a river. His boat can carry only him and one of the three at a time. If alone together, the wolf eats the goat and the goat eats the cabbage. How can he get them all across safely?
Answer: Take goat first; return alone; take wolf; bring goat back; take cabbage; return alone; finally take goat again.
You have two ropes that each burn for exactly one hour, but they burn at uneven rates. How can you measure exactly 45 minutes?
Answer: Light both ends of rope 1 and one end of rope 2. When rope 1 burns out (30 minutes), light the other end of rope 2. When rope 2 burns out, 15 more minutes have passed. Total = 45 minutes.
A prisoner must choose between three doors: behind one is freedom, behind the other two are lions that haven’t eaten in years. Which door should he choose?
Answer: One of the lion doors—if they haven’t eaten in years, they’re dead.
A man is found dead in a room with 53 bicycles. What happened?
Answer: He was cheating at cards (“bicycles” = Bicycle brand cards) and was killed.
You have 8 balls of equal size. Seven of them weigh the same; one is heavier. You have a balance scale and may use it only twice. How do you find the heavier ball?
Answer: Weigh 3 vs 3. If equal, heavier is among remaining 2; weigh 1 vs 1. If not equal, take heavier 3 and weigh 1 vs 1; if equal, the third is heavier.
A man enters a bar and asks for a glass of water. The bartender points a gun at him. The man says “Thank you” and leaves. What happened?
Answer: The man had hiccups. The scare cured him.
You have a 3-liter jug and a 5-liter jug and unlimited water. How can you measure exactly 4 liters?
Answer: Fill 5L, pour into 3L (2L left). Empty 3L. Pour 2L into 3L. Fill 5L again, pour into 3L until full (1L left in 5L).
A man walked into a restaurant and the waiter said, “Good day, Admiral.” Yet the man was dressed in normal clothes. How did the waiter know he was an admiral?
Answer: He was in a navy-themed restaurant where the staff knew their regulars, or the trick: the restaurant is on a naval base and he was famous. (Alternate: He was wearing his name tag or uniform hat.)
A man lives on the 10th floor. Every day he takes the elevator down to the ground floor to go to work. When he returns, he takes the elevator to the 7th floor and walks the rest, unless it’s raining or other people are in the elevator. Why?
Answer: He’s short; he can only reach the button for 7. When it rains, he uses his umbrella, and others can press 10.
There are two doors. One leads to certain death; the other to freedom. Two guards stand there—one always tells the truth, one always lies. You can ask one question to one guard. What do you ask?
Answer: “Which door would the other guard say leads to freedom?” Then choose the opposite door.
A man dies on his 30th birthday from natural causes, but no one is surprised. How is this possible?
Answer: He was born on February 29 (Leap Year), so his actual birthdays were fewer.
You are in a dark room with a candle, a wood stove, and a gas lamp. You only have one match. What do you light first?
Answer: The match.
A girl goes to the store and buys 12 apples. On the way home, all but 9 fall out of the bag. How many apples does she have left?
Answer: 9 apples.
A family has a mother, father, and four daughters. Each daughter has one brother. How many people are in the family?
Answer: 7 people (mother, father, 4 daughters, 1 brother shared).
You’re in a race and you pass the person in second place. What place are you in now?
Answer: Second place.
A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. He calls the dog, which crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or boat. How?
Answer: The river is frozen.
What 5-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters?
Answer: Short (add ‘er’).
A rooster lays an egg on a roof. Which way does it roll?
Answer: Nowhere—roosters don’t lay eggs.
A girl drops a coin into a bottle, then puts a cork in the bottle. How can she get the coin out without removing the cork or breaking the bottle?
Answer: Push the cork into the bottle.
A man is found dead in a room with only a table and a puddle of water. How did he die?
Answer: He stood on an ice block to hang himself; it melted.
A truck driver is going down a one-way street the wrong way, but he doesn’t break the law. How?
Answer: He’s walking, not driving.
You have a 5-letter word. If you remove the first letter, it means “to form.” If you remove the first two letters, it’s an animal. If you remove the first three, you get a drink. The word?
Answer: “Shape” → “hape” (not English) is tricky; better riddle: “Grape”: grape → rape (to seize), ape (animal), “pe” (not a drink). We’ll use a clearer one:
New version: “What word is shorter when you add letters?”
Answer: Short.
Two people were born at the same moment, but they don’t have the same birthdays. How is that possible?
Answer: They were born in different time zones.
A father and son are in a car crash. The father dies. The boy is rushed to surgery. The surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy. He’s my son.” How is this possible?
Answer: The surgeon is his mother.
How can you add eight 8s to get the number 1,000?
Answer: 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000.
There are 5 sisters in a room. Anne is reading, Rose is cooking, Kate is playing chess, and Mary is doing laundry. What is the fifth sister doing?
Answer: Playing chess with Kate.
A man looked at a painting and said, “Sons I have none, but that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the painting?
Answer: His grandson.

Classic Hard Riddles

Riddles With Answers

I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest man can’t hold me for much more than a minute. What am I?
Answer: Your breath.
I am always hungry, I must always be fed. The finger I touch will soon turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
You measure my life in hours and I serve you by expiring. I’m quick when I’m thin and slow when I’m fat. The wind is my enemy. What am I?
Answer: A candle.
I have keys but no locks, I have space but no rooms, you can enter but can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
I turn once, what is out will not get in. I turn again, what is in will not get out. What am I?
Answer: A key.
I’m not alive, but I grow. I don’t have lungs, but I need air. I don’t have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
The person who makes it, sells it. The person who buys it, never uses it. The person who uses it doesn’t know it. What is it?
Answer: A coffin.
I can fly without wings. I can cry without eyes. Wherever I go, darkness flies. What am I?
Answer: A cloud.
I can build castles, level mountains, and blind some people. I help others see. What am I?
Answer: Sand (or time, but sand fits all clues).
I can run, but I never walk. I have a mouth, but I never talk. What am I?
Answer: A river.
I am taken from a mine and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost everyone. What am I?
Answer: Pencil lead (graphite).
I am not alive, but I can die. I am not sick, but I can be ill. I can freeze, crash, or hang still. What am I?
Answer: A computer.
I am always in front of you, but you can never see me. What am I?
Answer: The future.
I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?
Answer: A joke.
The one who makes me doesn’t need me. The one who buys me doesn’t use me. The one who uses me can’t see me. What am I?
Answer: A coffin.
I have one eye but cannot see. I’m faster than any man alive. What am I?
Answer: A hurricane or a needle (classic answer: a hurricane, because of its “eye”).
I can bring back the dead, make you weep, make you smile, and make time stand still. I can be in one place but be felt everywhere. What am I?
Answer: A memory.
At night they come without being fetched, and by day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?
Answer: Stars.
I go around all the places, cities, towns, and villages, but never come inside. What am I?
Answer: A street or a road.
I go up and I go down, sometimes dirty, sometimes clean. People step on me all day. What am I?
Answer: Stairs.
If you drop me, I’m sure to crack, but give me a smile and I’ll smile back. What am I?
Answer: A mirror.
I can be long or short; I can be grown or bought; I can be painted or left bare; I can be round or square. What am I?
Answer: Nails (fingernails or metal nails).
I cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. I lie behind stars and under hills, and empty holes I fill. I end all things. What am I?
Answer: Darkness.
I am always in you, sometimes on you. If I surround you, I can kill you. What am I?
Answer: Water.
I am not alive, yet I grow; I don’t have lungs, but I need air; I don’t have a mouth, yet water ends me. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
I am full of holes but I’m strong as steel. I usually sink but sometimes I float. Ships trust me, and so do climbers. What am I?
Answer: A net.
I am the beginning of everything, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place. What am I?
Answer: The letter “E”.
I have lakes with no water, mountains with no stone, and cities with no buildings. What am I?
Answer: A map.

Tricky Riddles With Answers

Lateral Thinking Tricky Riddles

What can you hold in your right hand but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left hand.
A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and left on Friday. How is that possible?
Answer: His horse’s name is Friday.
You walk into a room with a match, a kerosene lamp, a candle, and a fireplace. What do you light first?
Answer: The match.
What gets bigger the more you take away from it?
Answer: A hole.
How many months have 28 days?
Answer: All 12 months.
If you’re running in a race and pass the person in second place, what place are you now in?
Answer: Second place.
What goes up and down but never moves?
Answer: Stairs.
A man dies of old age on his 25th birthday. How is this possible?
Answer: He was born on February 29 (Leap Day).
What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
Which weighs more, a kilo of feathers or a kilo of bricks?
Answer: They weigh the same—both are one kilo.
What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise.
You see me once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day. What am I?
Answer: The letter “E”.
A girl fell off a 20-foot ladder but didn’t get hurt. How?
Answer: She fell off the bottom rung.
What has one head, one foot, and four legs?
Answer: A bed.
A rooster lays an egg on top of a roof. Which way does it roll?
Answer: Nowhere—roosters don’t lay eggs.
What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters?
Answer: “Short” (add “er”).
You can see me in water, but I never get wet. What am I?
Answer: A reflection.
If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine.
What never asks a question but gets answered all the time?
Answer: A doorbell.
A man went outside in heavy rain without an umbrella or hat, but not a single hair on his head got wet. How?
Answer: He was bald.
A plane crashes on the border of two countries. Where do they bury the survivors?
Answer: Nowhere—you don’t bury survivors.
What has four fingers and a thumb but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove.
You’re in a room with no exits, only a mirror and a table. How do you get out?
Answer: Look in the mirror, see what you “saw,” take the “saw,” cut the table in half, two halves make a “hole,” and you climb out. (Classic silly lateral riddle.)
What can travel around the world while staying in the same corner?
Answer: A stamp.
What starts with “T,” ends with “T,” and has “T” in it?
Answer: A teapot.
You are driving a bus. At the first stop, 3 people get on. At the second stop, 2 get off and 5 get on. At the third stop, 4 get off and 2 get on. What is the bus driver’s name?
Answer: Your name—you are the driver.
What has many keys but can’t open any doors?
Answer: A piano or keyboard.
A man dressed in all black walks down a country lane. A car with no lights comes around the corner, yet stops in time. How did the driver see him?
Answer: It was daytime.
What gets sharper the more you use it but dull if you stop using it?
Answer: Your brain.
A truck can hold 10 people. Yet 11 got on, and not a single extra person got off, but there was still room. How?
Answer: They were all small children, or the trick: “not a single extra person”—they were all couples, not “single.”
A man sits in a house at night with no light at all. There is no fire, no candle, no lamp, yet he is reading a book. How?
Answer: He is blind and reading Braille.
You can only keep it once you give it to someone else. What is it?
Answer: Your word / a promise.
What comes at the end of everything?
Answer: The letter “g”.
Which word in the dictionary is always spelled incorrectly?
Answer: “Incorrectly.”
A man gets dressed, turns off the light, and goes to bed. In the morning he finds glass and water all over the floor and his fish are dead. What happened?
Answer: He knocked over the fish tank during the night.
A man stands on one side of a river, his cat on the other. He calls the cat, which crosses the river without getting wet and without bridge or boat. How?
Answer: The river is frozen.
What has an eye but cannot see, and spins but does not walk?
Answer: A hurricane or a storm.
You see a house with two doors: one to success, one to failure. Two identical people stand there, one always lies, one always tells the truth. You can ask one question to one of them. What do you ask to find the door to success?
Answer: “Which door would the other person say leads to success?” Then choose the opposite door.
A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 die. How many are left?
Answer: 9 sheep.
What occurs once in every minute, twice in every moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M.”
A man is pushing his car down the road when he comes to a hotel. He shouts, “I’m bankrupt!” Why?
Answer: He is playing Monopoly.
If you throw a red stone into the blue sea, what will it become?
Answer: Wet.
Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?
Answer: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
A man was born in 1980 and died in 1950. How is that possible?
Answer: He was born in room 1980 and died in room 1950, or in 1980 BC and died in 1950 BC (years counting backward).
What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
A man is looking at someone in a photograph. His friend asks, “Who is it?” The man replies, “Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the photo?
Answer: His son.
What has many rings but no fingers?
Answer: A tree (tree rings) or a telephone.
You throw me out when you want to use me. You take me in when you’re done. What am I?
Answer: An anchor.
A rooster is on a rooftop facing east. The wind is blowing west. In which direction will the egg roll?
Answer: It won’t—roosters don’t lay eggs.
You are in a house with four walls. Each wall faces south. A bear walks past the house. What color is the bear?
Answer: White—you’re at the North Pole, so it’s a polar bear.

Trick Questions With Answers

Riddles With Answers

If a plane crashes on the border between two countries, where do they bury the survivors?
Answer: You don’t bury survivors.
How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the ark?
Answer: None—Noah built the ark, not Moses.
If you have a bowl with six apples and you take away four, how many do you have?
Answer: Four—you took four apples.
What can be caught but never thrown?
Answer: A cold.
If an electric train is going south, which way is the smoke going?
Answer: There is no smoke—it’s electric.
How many letters are in the alphabet?
Answer: In “the alphabet”? 11 letters (t-h-e a-l-p-h-a-b-e-t).
Is it legal for a man to marry his widow’s sister?
Answer: No—he’s dead if he has a widow.
If you pass the person in second place in a race, what place are you in?
Answer: Second place.
If a rooster lays an egg on a slanted roof, which way will it roll?
Answer: Roosters don’t lay eggs.
What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
How much dirt is in a hole that’s 3 feet deep and 2 feet wide?
Answer: None—it’s a hole.
Can you lift an elephant with one hand?
Answer: No, you can’t find an elephant with only one hand.
What happens if you throw a red stone into the blue sea?
Answer: It gets wet.
What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary?
Answer: “Incorrectly.”
If there are 12 fish and half of them drown, how many are left?
Answer: 12—fish don’t drown in water.
If a plane crashes exactly on the border of two countries, where do they bury the pilots?
Answer: Nowhere—pilots are people; you don’t bury them unless they’re dead, and the riddle doesn’t say that.
What’s heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?
Answer: Neither—they both weigh a pound.
If you have only one match and enter a dark room with a candle, an oil lamp, and a gas stove, what do you light first?
Answer: The match.
What never asks a question but gets answered all the time?
Answer: A doorbell.
What type of coat is best put on when it is wet?
Answer: A coat of paint.
How can a person go eight days without sleep?
Answer: Sleep at night, not during the day.
If you throw a blue stone into the Red Sea, what will it become?
Answer: Wet.
If you have three apples and you take away two, how many do you have?
Answer: Two—the ones you took.
What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
What runs but never walks, murmurs but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river.
A girl dropped her ring into a cup of coffee. The ring didn’t get wet. How?
Answer: The coffee was dry (coffee beans or powder).
If it takes 10 minutes to boil one egg, how long will it take to boil three eggs?
Answer: 10 minutes if you boil them together.
Some months have 31 days, others have 30. How many have 28?
Answer: All of them have at least 28 days.
Which weighs more, a ton of gold or a ton of feathers?
Answer: The same—they’re both a ton.
If Mr. Smith’s peacock lays an egg in Mr. Jones’s yard, who owns the egg?
Answer: Neither—peacocks (males) don’t lay eggs.
A farmer had 10 sheep. All but 7 ran away. How many are left?
Answer: 7 sheep.
What breaks yet never falls, and what falls yet never breaks?
Answer: Day breaks and night falls.
Can a man marry his widow’s sister?
Answer: No—he’s dead if he has a widow.
If a plane crashes in the ocean, every single person dies. Who survives?
Answer: All the married people (play on “single”).
You are in a race. You overtake the last person. What place are you now in?
Answer: It’s impossible to overtake the last person.
If you divide 30 by ½ and add 10, what do you get?
Answer: 70 (30 ÷ 0.5 = 60, plus 10 = 70).
Woody’s father has three sons: Snap, Crackle, and…?
Answer: Woody.
Do they have the 4th of July in England?
Answer: Yes, they have the date—just not the US holiday.
How many legs does an elephant have if you call its trunk a leg?
Answer: Four—calling its trunk a leg doesn’t make it one.
Which is correct: “The yolk of the egg is white” or “The yolk of the egg are white”?
Answer: Neither—the yolk of an egg is yellow.
If you had only one match and were in a cold room with a single candle, a fireplace, and a gas lamp, which would you light first?
Answer: The match.
A man builds a house with four sides facing south. A bear walks past the house. What color is the bear?
Answer: White—it’s at the North Pole (polar bear).
If you spell “sit” in water, what do you get?
Answer: Wet.
How many animals did Moses take into the ark?
Answer: None—Noah built the ark, not Moses.
You are in a dark room with no doors or windows. Only a table and a mirror. How do you get out?
Answer: Same silly trick: look in the mirror, see what you “saw,” take the “saw,” cut the table in half, two halves make a “hole,” climb out through the hole.
If a red house is made of red bricks and a blue house is made of blue bricks, what is a greenhouse made of?
Answer: Glass.
You see a one-story house where everything is yellow: the walls, doors, furniture. What color are the stairs?
Answer: There are no stairs in a one-story house.
How far can a dog run into the woods?
Answer: Halfway—after that, it’s running out of the woods.
You have two coins that add up to 30 cents. One is not a 10-cent coin. What are the two coins?
Answer: A 20-cent and a 10-cent coin; the other coin is 10 cents, but the riddle only said one is not.
What can you put in a bucket to make it weigh less?
Answer: A hole.

Story & Situation Tricky Riddles

A man is found dead in a locked room with puddles of water around him. The windows are closed. No one else is inside. What happened?
Answer: He stood on a block of ice that melted.
A woman shoots her husband, holds him underwater for five minutes, and hangs him. Later they go out together and enjoy a meal. How?
Answer: She’s a photographer—she shot, washed, and hung the photo.
A man is lying dead in the desert. He has a backpack on. No footprints around him. How did he die?
Answer: His parachute failed—backpack is the parachute.
A man jumps from a 50-foot ladder and doesn’t get hurt. How?
Answer: He jumped from the bottom rung.
A man sits in a room containing only a table and a mirror. He is trapped. How does he escape?
Answer: Look in the mirror, see what he “saw,” cut the table in half, two halves make a “hole,” climb out.
A man in a car sees a door open and knows immediately he’s going to crash. Why?
Answer: He’s driving into an automatic car wash.
Two men enter a bar. One orders water, the other leaves. The bartender fires a gun in the air. The man who ordered water says, “Thank you,” and leaves. What happened?
Answer: He had hiccups; the gunshot scared them away.
A woman buys a parrot. The seller says, “This parrot repeats everything it hears.” After a week, the woman says it hasn’t spoken a word. Why?
Answer: The parrot is deaf.
A man sees a truck going the wrong way down a one-way street but isn’t worried. Why?
Answer: The man is walking, not driving.
A man is found hanging in a barn. The floor is covered in water. No ladder or chair. How did he hang himself?
Answer: He stood on ice that melted.
A murderer is sentenced to death and must choose between three rooms:
– full of raging fires
– full of assassins with loaded guns
– full of lions who haven’t eaten in 5 years
Which should he choose?
Answer: The lions—they’d be dead after 5 years.
A man goes into a restaurant and orders seagull soup. After tasting it, he leaves and kills himself. Why?
Answer: He had been stranded and fed “seagull soup,” but it was actually his dead wife. Tasting real seagull confirmed the truth.
A man wakes up and sees that both his hands are blue ink. He checks the room and nothing looks strange. What happened?
Answer: He was sleepwalking and grabbed an ink bottle.
A woman is reading a book in a completely dark room with no lights, electricity, or candles. How?
Answer: She’s blind and reading Braille.
A man is running home but sees a masked man. He turns around and runs the other direction. What is happening?
Answer: It’s baseball—the masked man is the catcher.
A man is found dead in his office. The only evidence is a puddle of water and a plastic wrapper. What happened?
Answer: He choked on an ice cube, which melted.
A couple is lying dead on the floor surrounded by water and broken glass. What happened?
Answer: They were goldfish; the bowl broke.
A man pushes his car to a hotel and says, “I’m bankrupt.” Why?
Answer: Monopoly game.
A man is found in a locked room, with no windows, hanging from the ceiling. The floor is dusty. No chair, box, or object is inside. How did he hang himself?
Answer: He stood on a block of ice that melted.
A woman is crying because she lost one of her daughters, yet all her daughters are alive. How?
Answer: She lost her daughter in a crowd (lost in location, not dead).
A man is found dead with a large pile of wood on top of him. No one else is around. How did he die?
Answer: He climbed a tree, cut it wrong, and it fell on him.
A woman goes to the police claiming her bag with $100 was stolen. But after questioning, the police arrest her. Why?
Answer: She didn’t have $100—she said she had change for a $100 bill. You don’t have change unless you have broken the bill.
A man shouts, “This is unfair!” and dies. He’s in a room with no windows. Why?
Answer: He was being executed in an electric chair.
A man wakes up in the middle of the night and finds that all the clocks in his house say different times. What happened?
Answer: There was a power outage that reset the clocks.
A detective sees a dead body in a locked room. The calendar in the room has every date crossed off except one. What does this mean?
Answer: The circled date is the day the victim marked his killer’s arrival or his death date.
A girl says she has as many sisters as brothers, but each brother has twice as many sisters as brothers. How many boys and girls are there?
Answer: 4 girls and 3 boys.
A man is lying dead on the ground with a backpack. The backpack is unopened. What happened?
Answer: It’s a parachute that failed to open.
A man calls his dog from across the river. The dog crosses the river without getting wet and without a bridge. How?
Answer: The river is frozen.
A man was shot in the heart but didn’t die. Why?
Answer: The bullet went through the tattoo on his chest of a heart, not his real heart.
A man goes to the market and buys a fox, a goose, and a bag of corn. He must cross a river but can only take one at a time. How does he do it?
Answer: Take goose; go back; take fox; bring goose back; take corn; return; take goose.
A man gets into his car, drives to work, and suddenly vanishes. No accident, no witnesses. How?
Answer: He works at a magician’s show and vanishes on stage.
A man is found dead with two rings around him but no wounds. How did he die?
Answer: He was in a circus—he died performing inside the ring (or gymnast rings).
A woman runs into the bathroom, screams, and faints. There’s a puddle of water on the floor. Why?
Answer: She saw ice melted from a broken glass or a pet fish escaped.
A man calls 911 and says, “My friend is dead!” The operator says, “Calm down. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” The line goes silent, then a gunshot. Then the man says, “Okay, now what?”
What’s going on?
Answer: It’s the classic dark humor riddle—the man took instructions literally.
A man is found dead holding a piece of straw. What happened?
Answer: He drew the short straw when deciding who would jump off the boat to lighten the load.
A rich man died and left his fortune equally to his daughters but left nothing to his sons. Why?
Answer: He had daughters only—no sons.
A man leaves home, runs around the block exactly three times, then returns home tired but holding nothing. What did he do?
Answer: He was jogging.
A man walks into a bank and asks the teller to check his balance. She pushes him and he falls. Why?
Answer: He asked for his physical balance, not account balance—a pun joke.
A man is lying on the ground with a sawdust-like powder next to him. What happened?
Answer: He fell from a tightrope in the circus—sawdust covers the floor.
A man opens a door and sees a frozen body. How?
Answer: He opened a freezer.
A woman wakes up to find a stranger in her room. The window is locked from inside and door was bolted. How did he enter?
Answer: She is dreaming.
A man looks around a completely empty room except for a mirror and a table. Suddenly he escapes without touching anything. How?
Answer: He wasn’t really trapped—it was just the setup of a lateral thinking riddle.
A man dies in a forest. There is no sign of struggle, no wounds. Only a backpack. What is in the backpack?
Answer: A parachute that didn’t open.
A man is found dead hanging by a rope, and the floor is wet. No chair or support is found. What happened?
Answer: He stood on ice that melted (classic).
A woman was reading a newspaper and found an article about her own death. How is that possible?
Answer: She shares a name with someone else who died.
A man left home and took three left turns, then saw a masked man waiting. Who is the masked man?
Answer: The catcher in baseball.
A woman drinks poison, but her husband does not. The husband survives, but she dies. Why?
Answer: The poison was in the ice of her drink; she drank slowly, ice melted.
A man takes a photo of someone and says “This is my father’s son,” but the person is not himself. Who is it?
Answer: His brother.
A man was born before his father, died before his mother, and married before his sister. How?
Answer: He was born before his father (same date, previous year), died before his mother (she outlived him), married before his sister (he married earlier).
A man is reading the newspaper and suddenly begins crying. What happened?
Answer: He read bad news or found an obituary of someone he knew.

Math Riddles With Answers

Easy Math Riddles for Kids

Riddles With Answers

I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
Answer: Seven (remove the “s” → “even”).
If you add 5 to 9, you get 2. How?
Answer: On a clock—9 o’clock + 5 hours = 2 o’clock.
I am a number. I add 5 to myself and the result is 12. What number am I?
Answer: 7 (7 + 5 = 12).
Tom has 10 apples. He gives 3 to Anna and 2 to John. How many apples does he have left?
Answer: 5 apples.
There are 4 cats in a room. Each cat sees 3 cats. How many cats are in the room?
Answer: 4 cats (each one sees the other three).
What’s the sum of all the numbers on a standard die?
Answer: 21 (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6).
If you have 2 chocolates and your friend gives you 3 more, how many do you have in total?
Answer: 5 chocolates.
A chair costs $7, a table costs $21. How many chairs do you need to equal the price of one table?
Answer: 3 chairs ($7 × 3 = $21).
What is half of 2 plus 2?
Answer: 3 (half of 2 is 1, and 1 + 2 = 3).
What is 10 minus 4 plus 2?
Answer: 8 (10 – 4 + 2 = 8).
You have 6 candies. You eat 2 and give 1 to a friend. How many do you still have?
Answer: 3 candies.
How many sides does a triangle have?
Answer: 3 sides.
If you count from 1 to 10, how many times do you say the number 7?
Answer: Once.
Sara had 8 balloons. 3 flew away. How many are left?
Answer: 5 balloons.
A pizza is cut into 8 slices. You eat 3 slices. How many slices are left?
Answer: 5 slices.
What is the next number in this pattern: 2, 4, 6, 8, … ?
Answer: 10 (adding 2 each time).
You have 5 cookies and your friend has 7. How many cookies do you have together?
Answer: 12 cookies.
What is the result of 3 × 4?
Answer: 12.
A farmer has 5 sheep and 3 cows. How many animals does he have?
Answer: 8 animals.
If you buy 2 pens for $3 each, how much do you spend?
Answer: $6.
What is 15 divided by 3?
Answer: 5.
You count 2, 4, 6, 8… What kind of numbers are these?
Answer: Even numbers.
Ben has 12 marbles. He loses 4. How many marbles does he have now?
Answer: 8 marbles.
If a dozen eggs is 12, how many eggs are in two dozen?
Answer: 24 eggs.
What is 9 minus 6?
Answer: 3.
Which number is bigger: 15 or 51?
Answer: 51.
If you triple 3, what number do you get?
Answer: 9.
You have 10 candies and eat 10. How many candies do you have now?
Answer: 0 (you ate them all).
What is the value of 7 + 7 – 7?
Answer: 7.
If there are 5 birds on a fence and 2 fly away, how many are left?
Answer: 3 birds.

Number Pattern Riddles

What is the next number in the pattern: 1, 3, 5, 7, … ?
Answer: 9 (adding 2 each time – odd numbers).
What comes next: 2, 4, 8, 16, … ?
Answer: 32 (multiplying by 2 each time).
Find the next number: 5, 10, 15, 20, … ?
Answer: 25 (adding 5).
What is the next number: 1, 4, 9, 16, … ?
Answer: 25 (squares: 1², 2², 3², 4², 5²).
What comes next: 3, 6, 9, 12, … ?
Answer: 15 (adding 3).
Complete the pattern: 10, 20, 30, 40, … ?
Answer: 50 (adding 10).
What is the next number: 100, 90, 80, 70, … ?
Answer: 60 (subtracting 10).
Fill in the blank: 2, 5, 8, 11, … ?
Answer: 14 (adding 3).
What is next: 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, … ?
Answer: 16 (add 1, then 2, then 3, then 4…).
Find the next number: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, … ?
Answer: 21 (Fibonacci sequence).
What comes next: 11, 22, 33, 44, … ?
Answer: 55 (adding 11).
What is the next number: 9, 18, 27, 36, … ?
Answer: 45 (adding 9).
Complete the pattern: 2, 6, 12, 20, … ?
Answer: 30 (add 4, 6, 8, then 10…).
What comes next: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, … ?
Answer: 21 (triangular numbers: +2, +3, +4, +5, +6).
Find the next term: 4, 9, 14, 19, … ?
Answer: 24 (adding 5).
What comes next in the pattern: 0, 5, 10, 15, … ?
Answer: 20 (adding 5).
Fill in the blank: 7, 14, 21, 28, … ?
Answer: 35 (adding 7).
What is the next number: 50, 45, 40, 35, … ?
Answer: 30 (subtracting 5).
Complete the sequence: 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, … ?
Answer: 16 (adding 3).
What is the next number: 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 17, … ?
Answer: 23 (add 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…).

Word Problem Math Riddles

Rachel goes to the supermarket and buys 10 tomatoes. On the way home, all but 9 fall out of the bag. How many tomatoes are left in the bag?
Answer: 9 tomatoes.
You buy a toy for $10 and give the cashier a $20 bill. How much change should you get back?
Answer: $10.
Sam has 5 red balloons and 7 blue balloons. He gives 3 blue balloons away. How many balloons does he have left?
Answer: 9 balloons (5 red + 4 blue).
A baker makes 24 cookies. He puts them equally into 6 boxes. How many cookies are in each box?
Answer: 4 cookies per box.
A bus can hold 40 people. Right now there are 25 people on the bus. How many more people can get on before it’s full?
Answer: 15 people.
Lily has 3 boxes with 6 pencils in each box. How many pencils does she have in total?
Answer: 18 pencils (3 × 6).
A book costs $8. You have $20. After buying the book, how much money will you have left?
Answer: $12.
There are 5 rows of chairs with 4 chairs in each row. How many chairs are there in total?
Answer: 20 chairs (5 × 4).
A farmer has 10 chickens. Each chicken has 2 legs. How many chicken legs are there in total?
Answer: 20 legs.
A school has 4 classes. Each class has 25 students. How many students are there in the school?
Answer: 100 students.
You have 15 candies and want to share them equally with 2 friends (3 people total). How many candies does each person get?
Answer: 5 candies each.
Tom read 12 pages of a book on Monday and 18 pages on Tuesday. How many pages did he read in total?
Answer: 30 pages.
A pizza is cut into 12 slices. You and your friend eat 3 slices each. How many slices are left?
Answer: 6 slices.
A shop sells pencils at 2 for $1. How many pencils can you buy for $5?
Answer: 10 pencils.
You put 9 apples equally into 3 bags. How many apples are in each bag?
Answer: 3 apples per bag.
A runner runs 5 km every day. How many kilometers does he run in 7 days?
Answer: 35 km.
Anna has 20 stickers. She gives 4 stickers to each of her 3 friends. How many stickers does she have left?
Answer: 8 stickers (20 – 12 = 8).
There are 30 students in a class. Half of them bring a lunchbox. How many students bring lunchboxes?
Answer: 15 students.
A toy costs $9. You have $50. How many toys can you buy and how much money will you have left?
Answer: You can buy 5 toys ($45) and have $5 left.
You save $2 every day. How many days will it take to save $20?
Answer: 10 days.

Logic Riddles With Answers

Logic Puzzle Riddles

Riddles With Answers

Three houses are red, blue, and green. The red house is to the left of the blue house. The green house is to the right of the blue house. Which house is in the middle?
Answer: The blue house.
You have a fox, a chicken, and a bag of grain. You must cross a river with only one item at a time. If left alone, the fox eats the chicken and the chicken eats the grain. How do you get all three across?
Answer: Take chicken first; go back. Take fox; bring chicken back. Take grain; go back alone. Take chicken last.
A man says, “The day before yesterday, I was 25. Next year I will be 28.” How is this possible?
Answer: He says this on January 1st. His birthday is December 31st. Two days ago he was 25, yesterday he turned 26, this year he’ll be 27, next year 28.
Two mothers and two daughters go out to eat. Only three meals are ordered, yet everyone gets one. How?
Answer: They are grandmother, mother, and daughter (three people).
You have a 5-liter jug and a 3-liter jug. How can you measure exactly 4 liters of water?
Answer: Fill 5L. Pour into 3L (2L left in 5L). Empty 3L. Pour the 2L into 3L. Fill 5L again and pour into 3L until full (1L left in 5L).
A man is looking at a clock that shows the wrong time. It says 3:15, but the hour hand is exactly between 3 and 4. How is this possible?
Answer: It’s actually 3:30—at 3:30 the hour hand is between 3 and 4.
There are five sisters in a room. Anne is reading, Rose is cooking, Kate is playing chess, and Maria is doing laundry. What is the fifth sister doing?
Answer: Playing chess with Kate.
A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 die. How many are left?
Answer: 9 sheep.
A man married 20 women in his town, but never broke the law. How?
Answer: He’s a priest or judge who performed marriage ceremonies.
You are in a race and pass the person in last place. What place are you now in?
Answer: Impossible—you can’t pass the person in last place.
Three doctors say that Robert is their brother. Robert says he has no brothers. Who is lying?
Answer: No one. The doctors are his sisters.
A man stands on one side of a river, his horse on the other. He calls his horse, which crosses the river without getting wet, without bridge or boat. How?
Answer: The river is frozen.
A man walks into a room and sees a lion, a cheetah, and a panther. There are no cages and no restraints, yet he isn’t afraid. Why?
Answer: He’s at the zoo; they’re behind glass.
Every time you subtract me from you, you get stronger. What am I?
Answer: Your fears.
A man is found dead in a room with a puddle of water and a rope around his neck. The windows are locked from inside. What happened?
Answer: He stood on a block of ice to hang himself; it melted.
A girl has 10 brothers and each brother has one sister. How many children are in the family?
Answer: 11 children (10 brothers + 1 sister).
A man leaves his camp, walks a mile south, a mile east, and a mile north, and ends up back at his camp. How is this possible?
Answer: He is at the North Pole.
Two boxers are in a match. One of them wins, but no one throws a punch. How?
Answer: It was a boxing match on paper (or one forfeited). Classic answer: They were in a chess “boxing” puzzle, but simpler: it was a walkover.
You have 10 fish in a tank. 2 drown, 3 swim away, and 4 die. How many fish are left?
Answer: 10. Fish don’t drown or swim away from a tank.
You’re in a room with three light switches. Each controls one of three bulbs in another room. You may only enter the bulb room once. How do you figure out which switch goes to which bulb?
Answer: Turn on switch 1 for a few minutes, then turn it off and turn on switch 2. Enter room: lit bulb = switch 2, warm but off bulb = switch 1, cold bulb = switch 3.
A man looks at a digital clock and says, “In 12 minutes, it will read the same upside down.” The time is 12:21. What time will it be in 12 minutes?
Answer: 12:33 (reads the same upside down on a calculator-style display).
You have a basket with 5 apples. You give an apple to 5 people. Each person gets one apple, but there is still one apple left in the basket. How?
Answer: You give four people an apple and the fifth person gets the basket with the last apple in it.
A man stands in front of a painting and says, “That man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is the man in the picture?
Answer: His son.
There is a single-story house. Everything is yellow: the walls, doors, furniture. What color are the stairs?
Answer: There are no stairs—it’s a one-story house.
A boy and his father get into a car accident. The father dies. The boy is rushed to the hospital. The surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy. He is my son.” How?
Answer: The surgeon is his mother.
A man looks at a clock and sees the time as 3:15. What is the angle between the hour and minute hand?
Answer: At 3:15, the minute hand is at 3 (15 minutes), the hour hand is a quarter of the way between 3 and 4. The angle is 7.5 degrees between them. (But many accept “not exactly 90°.”)
A teacher has 30 students. Half of them are boys. She says, “If I add 5 more boys, then two-thirds of my class will be boys.” Is she right?
Answer: No. With 30 students and 15 boys, adding 5 boys = 20 boys out of 35 students ≈ 57%, not 2/3.
A man needs to cross a bridge with a fox, a rabbit, and lettuce. He can only carry one at a time. If left alone, the fox eats the rabbit, the rabbit eats the lettuce. How can he cross safely?
Answer: Same logic as classic: Rabbit first; go back. Fox; bring rabbit back. Lettuce; return alone. Rabbit last.
A man says: “In two years, I will be twice as old as I was five years ago.” How old is he now?
Answer: Let x = age now. In 2 years: x + 2. Five years ago: x – 5. Equation: x + 2 = 2(x – 5) → x + 2 = 2x – 10 → 12 = x. He is 12.
A clock shows the time as 12:12. Move only two matches (as if the digits are matchsticks) to make the time 1:00. What is the trick?
Answer: Move the sticks to form 1:00; this is a visual puzzle—but the logical idea: you rearrange the “1” and “2” matches to show 1:00.

Critical Thinking Riddles

A man looks at his watch for a full minute but never sees the time. Why?
Answer: His watch is broken.
You are running a race. You pass the second person, then later pass the first person. What place are you in now?
Answer: First place.
You are driving a bus. At the first stop, 10 people get on. At the second stop, 5 get off and 7 get on. At the third stop, 4 get off and 3 get on. What color are the bus driver’s eyes?
Answer: Your eye color—you are the bus driver.
A man is condemned to death. He must choose one of three rooms:

Room 1: Full of raging fires.
Room 2: Full of armed killers.
Room 3: Full of lions that haven’t eaten in 3 years.
Which room is safest?**
Answer: Room 3—the lions are dead if they haven’t eaten for 3 years.

If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you don’t have me. What am I?
Answer: A secret.
A man left home, turned left three times, and came back home. He saw two men wearing masks. Who were they?
Answer: The catcher and umpire in a baseball game.
A man is six feet tall, works at a butcher shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh?
Answer: Meat.
Two coins add up to 30 cents. One of them is not a 10-cent coin. What are the coins?
Answer: A 20-cent and a 10-cent coin—the riddle says one is not 10 cents, but the other can be.
What begins with an E, ends with an E, and contains only one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
A man locked his car and walked away. When he came back, the windows were broken and inside were glass and two people. The police weren’t called. Why?
Answer: It was a car accident scene in a movie or he broke his own window to get keys.
You are in a house with four walls. All four walls face south. A bear walks past the house. What color is the bear?
Answer: White—you’re at the North Pole (polar bear).
A girl drops a 2 kg iron ball and a 1 kg ball of cotton from the same height at the same time. Which hits the ground first?
Answer: They hit at the same time (ignoring air resistance).
A man gets in the shower but there is no water. He still gets clean. How?
Answer: He was cleaning the shower, not himself.
A father and son are involved in a car crash. The father dies. The son is taken to the hospital; the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy; he’s my son.” Who is the surgeon?
Answer: His mother.
You cut me, slice me, and eat me. Still, I don’t mind. What am I?
Answer: A cake, bread, or fruit (typically “an onion” or “cake”).
A girl opened a book and found the page numbers added up to 27. What are the two page numbers?
Answer: 13 and 14 (13 + 14 = 27).
In a room, you see 3 cats. Each cat sees 2 cats. How many cats are in the room?
Answer: 3 cats (each sees the other two).
Two people were born at the same time on the same day but are not twins. How is that possible?
Answer: They are two of a set of triplets (or more).
A man gets on a train at 3 PM and off at 5 PM. The train moves nonstop. Yet his watch shows he traveled for only one hour. How?
Answer: He crossed a time zone ( back by 1 hour).
A man sits in his car and looks at his speedometer, which shows zero. He presses the gas and the car moves, yet the speedometer still reads zero. How?
Answer: He is in a toy car, or on a treadmill-like car test machine where the wheels spin but the car doesn’t move forward.
A girl has 20 apples. She gives 5 away, then cuts the rest in half. How many pieces does she have?
Answer: She has 15 apples left, cut in half → 30 pieces.
You’re in a dark room with a candle, a wood stove, and a gas lamp. You only have one match. What do you light first?
Answer: The match.
Which is correct: “Egg yolks are white” or “Egg yolks is white”?
Answer: Neither—egg yolks are yellow.
A man dug a hole 10 meters deep. How much dirt is in the hole?
Answer: None—it’s a hole.
A man sits on a chair facing south. Suddenly, he turns his chair around and faces north, yet he never moved from his spot. How?
Answer: He spun the chair in place.
A window cleaner is cleaning a window on a skyscraper’s 25th floor. He slips and falls, but doesn’t get hurt. How?
Answer: He fell inside the building, not outside—or he was standing on the ground floor cleaning a big window.
A man lives on the tenth floor. On rainy days, he takes the elevator straight to his floor. On sunny days, he only goes to the seventh and walks the rest. Why?
Answer: He is short and can only reach the 7 button; on rainy days he uses his umbrella to press 10.
A man drives his car to a hotel. When he arrives, he immediately knows he must pay a fine. Why?
Answer: He is playing Monopoly and landed on a hotel square owned by someone else.
You walk into a room with a rabbit holding a carrot, a pig eating from a bucket, and a chimp with a banana. Who is the smartest one in the room?
Answer: You are—the person reading the riddle.
A girl has 10 coins. She loses 3, then doubles what she has left. How many coins does she end up with?
Answer: She has 7 left, doubled = 14 coins.

Classic & Ancient Riddles With Answers

Traditional English Riddles

Thirty white horses on a red hill,
First they champ,
Then they stamp,
Then they stand still.
What are they?
Answer: Teeth.
As I was going to St Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives—
How many were going to St Ives?
Answer: One (only the speaker).
Riddle me riddle me ree,
I went over the sea,
And I got what I never did find.
What was it?
Answer: A hole in the water.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
What was Humpty Dumpty?
Answer: An egg.
Alive without breath,
As cold as death;
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail, never clinking.
What am I?
Answer: A fish.
It’s not my sister,
It’s not my brother,
But still it’s the child
Of my father and mother.
Who is it?
Answer: Me / myself.
What has a head, a tail, is brown,
And has no legs at all?
Answer: A penny (or a coin).
The more you take,
The more you leave behind.
What are they?
Answer: Footsteps.
I have a little house in which I live all alone.
It has no doors or windows,
And if I want to go out,
I must break through the wall.
What am I?
Answer: A chick in an egg.
Round as an apple,
Deep as a cup,
Yet all the king’s horses
Can’t pull it up.
What is it?
Answer: A well.

Mythology & Historical Riddles

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers,
Gnaws iron, bites steel,
Grinds hard stones to meal,
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
What is it?
Answer: Time.
In Greek myth, I turn men to stone with just one look.
Snakes are my hair.
Who am I?
Answer: Medusa.
I stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.
For this, I was chained to a rock.
Who am I?
Answer: Prometheus.
I am a winged horse from ancient tales,
Born from Medusa’s blood, as the legend tells.
Who am I?
Answer: Pegasus.
I hold the world upon my shoulders,
Or so the legend goes.
Who am I?
Answer: Atlas.
I’m known for opening a box (or jar) of troubles,
Leaving only hope behind.
Who am I?
Answer: Pandora.
I built a maze so great and wide,
To hide the monster kept inside.
Who am I?
Answer: Daedalus (who built the Labyrinth).
Half man, half bull,
I lived in the maze.
Heroes came seeking me,
And Theseus ended my days.
Who am I?
Answer: The Minotaur.
I tried to fly with borrowed wings,
Too close to the sun, I learned new things.
My wax wings melted; down I fell.
Who am I?
Answer: Icarus.
With a single touch, I turned things to gold,
Till I learned a lesson, so the story is told.
Who am I?
Answer: King Midas.

Nature & Old-World Riddles

I can fly but I have no wings.
I cry but I have no eyes.
Wherever I go, darkness flies.
What am I?
Answer: A cloud.
I am not alive, but I grow;
I don’t have lungs, but I need air;
I don’t have a mouth, but water kills me.
What am I?
Answer: Fire.
I have roots that no one sees,
I am taller than trees.
Up, up I go,
Yet I never grow.
What am I?
Answer: A mountain.
I have branches, yet no fruit,
Trunk, or leaves you see.
Men visit me every day—
To borrow and to read.
What am I?
Answer: A library (modern twist on old style).
I am born in silence,
In the cold of night,
I fall from the clouds,
Shining pure white.
At dawn I vanish with the sun.
What am I?
Answer: Snow (or frost).
I run through fields,
Yet never move.
I follow you always,
But never speak.
I grow long when the sun is low.
What am I?
Answer: Your shadow.
I’m not fire, but I glow;
I’m not water, but I flow.
I light the sky but I can’t be held.
What am I?
Answer: Lightning.
I begin in the morning,
And end at night.
Without me, you’d stumble,
I give you light.
What am I?
Answer: The sun (or daylight).
I am taken from mountains,
And hidden in a case,
From which I never leave,
Yet I’m used in every place.
What am I?
Answer: Pencil lead (graphite).
I rise and fall,
Yet never stand.
I move without feet
Across sea and sand.
What am I?
Answer: The tide.

Holiday & Seasonal Riddles

Winter, Snow & Christmas Riddles

I fall, but I never get hurt. I cover the ground in a soft white shirt. What am I?
Answer: Snow.
I’m made of water, but if you put me in water, I die. What am I?
Answer: An ice cube.
I have a carrot nose, a scarf, and a hat. When the sun comes out, I melt just like that. What am I?
Answer: A snowman.
I come only in winter,
I make the world bright,
I fall from the sky,
But I am not light.
What am I?
Answer: Snow.
I’m not a coat, but I hang on your back. I keep you warm in winter; I’m fluffy, not black. What am I?
Answer: A scarf or a winter jacket (most common: a coat).
I appear on windows when the air is cold,
In shining patterns, bright and bold.
What am I?
Answer: Frost.
I jingle and jangle, I hang on the tree.
Shiny and bright, kids all love me.
What am I?
Answer: Christmas ornaments or bells (most say “bells”).
I come once a year,
With gifts and cheer.
I slide down chimneys,
But have nothing to fear.
Who am I?
Answer: Santa Claus.
You can see me in December,
But not in May.
I bring lights and gifts,
And kids love the day.
What am I?
Answer: Christmas.
I’m long and cold,
I hang from the roof.
If I fall on your head,
You’ll need a proof.
What am I?
Answer: An icicle.

Spring, Summer & Autumn Riddles

Riddles With Answers

I wake up the flowers and paint the trees green.
After cold winter, I’m first to be seen.
What season am I?
Answer: Spring.
I’m hot and bright and kids have fun.
They swim and play under my sun.
What season am I?
Answer: Summer.
Leaves fall down and change their hue,
Red, gold, yellow, orange too.
What season am I?
Answer: Autumn (or fall).
I buzz in summer,
I sting if I’m mad,
I help make honey,
So don’t make me sad.
What am I?
Answer: A bee.
I’m full of light
And very long days.
Kids go on trips
And enjoy my rays.
What am I?
Answer: Summer.
I’m small and bright,
I light up the night,
In warm summer fields,
I’m a shining sight.
What am I?
Answer: A firefly.
I’m born in spring,
I grow in the summer,
I’m cut in the fall,
And gone by winter.
What am I?
Answer: A crop (like wheat or corn).
I fall from trees,
But I’m not rain.
Kids jump in piles;
I’m fun again.
What am I?
Answer: Leaves.
You wear me when it rains,
I cover your head.
I keep you dry
With colors of red.
What am I?
Answer: An umbrella (or a raincoat, but umbrella fits best).
I come after spring
And before fall.
I bring heat and sunshine
For one and all.
What season am I?
Answer: Summer.

ESL Riddles for English Learners

Vocabulary-Building ESL Riddles

Riddles With Answers

I have four legs, but I cannot walk. You sit on me. What am I?
Answer: A chair.
I open and close. I keep things cold inside. What am I?
Answer: A refrigerator.
I have hands but cannot clap. I tell you the time. What am I?
Answer: A clock.
I have pages but I’m not a newspaper. You read me to learn. What am I?
Answer: A book.
You wear me on your feet. I help you walk comfortably. What am I?
Answer: Shoes.
You use me to write. I have ink inside. What am I?
Answer: A pen.
I shine at night in the sky. I am not the moon. What am I?
Answer: A star.
You use me when it rains. I keep you dry. What am I?
Answer: An umbrella.
You use me to talk to people far away. I fit in your hand. What am I?
Answer: A phone.
I give light, but I am not the sun. You hold me in your hand. What am I?
Answer: A flashlight.

Grammar-Focused ESL Riddles

I am a word you use for a person, place, or thing. What part of speech am I?
Answer: A noun.
I replace a noun in a sentence. What part of speech am I?
Answer: A pronoun.
I show action in a sentence. What part of speech am I?
Answer: A verb.
Change “child” to plural. What is the new word?
Answer: Children.
Change “run” to past tense. What is the new word?
Answer: Ran.
Add one letter to make a new word: “he” becomes a place to live. What is the word?
Answer: Home (h + ome).
Which word completes the sentence:
“I ____ happy.”
Answer: am.
What is the opposite of the word “big”?
Answer: Small.
I start a question. I can be “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” or “how.” What am I called?
Answer: A question word.
I come at the end of a question. What punctuation mark am I?
Answer: A question mark (?).

Kids’ Riddles With Answers

Animal Riddles for Kids

Riddles With Answers

I have four legs, a tail, and I bark. What am I?
Answer: A dog.
I meow and purr and love to sleep. What am I?
Answer: A cat.
I have a long trunk and big ears. What am I?
Answer: An elephant.
I hop and have a pouch for my baby. What am I?
Answer: A kangaroo.
I roar and I’m called the king of the jungle. What am I?
Answer: A lion.
I swim in the sea and have sharp teeth. What am I?
Answer: A shark.
I’m black and white and love bamboo. What am I?
Answer: A panda.
I have wings but I’m not a plane. I lay eggs. What am I?
Answer: A bird.
I slither on the ground and have no legs. What am I?
Answer: A snake.
I can hang upside down. I sleep during the day. What am I?
Answer: A bat.
I have a big mane and my sound is a loud ‘neigh’. What am I?
Answer: A horse.
I live in water, I have gills, and I swim. What am I?
Answer: A fish.
I have eight legs and make webs. What am I?
Answer: A spider.
I am slow and carry my home on my back. What am I?
Answer: A turtle.
I jump and say “ribbit.” What am I?
Answer: A frog.
I have black stripes and look like a horse. What am I?
Answer: A zebra.
I can mimic sounds and talk like humans sometimes. What am I?
Answer: A parrot.
I am spotted, fast, and the fastest land animal. What am I?
Answer: A cheetah.
I live in the Arctic and I’m white. What am I?
Answer: A polar bear.
I’m tiny, work hard, and live in colonies. What am I?
Answer: An ant.
I can change colors to hide. What am I?
Answer: A chameleon.
I have a hump on my back and live in the desert. What am I?
Answer: A camel.
I’m pink and live on a farm. What am I?
Answer: A pig.
I am the tallest animal with a very long neck. What am I?
Answer: A giraffe.
I love carrots, hop fast, and have long ears. What am I?
Answer: A rabbit.

Food Riddles for Kids

I’m red and round and grow on a vine. People say I’m a veggie, but I’m really a fruit. What am I?
Answer: A tomato.
I’m yellow and long, monkeys love me. What am I?
Answer: A banana.
I’m crunchy and orange and good for your eyes. What am I?
Answer: A carrot.
I’m a fruit that keeps the doctor away if you eat one every day. What am I?
Answer: An apple.
I’m green on the outside, red on the inside, with black seeds. What am I?
Answer: A watermelon.
I’m made from milk, you keep me in the fridge, and I’m often yellow. What am I?
Answer: Cheese.
You crack me to cook me. I can be boiled, fried, or scrambled. What am I?
Answer: An egg.
I’m cold and sweet and eaten in a cone. What am I?
Answer: Ice cream.
I’m a circle, covered in cheese and toppings, and baked in an oven. What am I?
Answer: Pizza.
I’m made of bread, cheese, and sometimes meat. I’m eaten for lunch. What am I?
Answer: A sandwich.
I’m a yellow fruit that’s sour and used in lemonade. What am I?
Answer: A lemon.
I’m thin, long, and made from potatoes. People eat me with burgers. What am I?
Answer: French fries.
I’m white and fluffy and come in a bucket at the movies. What am I?
Answer: Popcorn.
I’m sweet, baked in an oven, and often have frosting on top. What am I?
Answer: A cake.
I’m a hot drink made from beans. Adults love me in the morning. What am I?
Answer: Coffee.
I’m a cold drink made from fruit. Sometimes I have bits of fruit inside. What am I?
Answer: Juice.
I’m a crunchy snack made from corn and often come in a bag. What am I?
Answer: Chips.
I’m long and thin and eaten with sauce. Sometimes I’m called noodles. What am I?
Answer: Spaghetti (or pasta).
I’m sweet, come in many colors, and kids love me on Halloween. What am I?
Answer: Candy.
I’m green and small. You eat me with a spoon from a pod. What am I?
Answer: Peas.
I’m a fruit that’s also a color. What am I?
Answer: Orange.
I’m a breakfast food, made from grains, eaten with milk. What am I?
Answer: Cereal.
I’m soft, white inside, and you use me to make sandwiches. What am I?
Answer: Bread.
I’m sweet, brown, and made from cocoa beans. What am I?
Answer: Chocolate.
I’m a red vegetable that you put on salads and burgers. Sometimes I make you cry. What am I?
Answer: An onion (or tomato, but onion fits “makes you cry”).

School & Object Riddles for Kids

I have pages, but I’m not a website. You write in me at school. What am I?
Answer: A notebook.
I’m full of words, stories, and facts. You read me. What am I?
Answer: A book.
I sit on your nose and help you see. What am I?
Answer: Glasses.
I erase your mistakes, but I get smaller each time. What am I?
Answer: An eraser.
I live in your backpack and color your world. What am I?
Answer: Crayons.
I have numbers and hands, but I can’t clap. What am I?
Answer: A clock.
I’m long and thin, and I help you measure. What am I?
Answer: A ruler.
I’m full of lead, but I’m not heavy. You use me to write. What am I?
Answer: A pencil.
I sit on your desk and give you light. What am I?
Answer: A lamp.
I carry your books, pencils, and lunch. You wear me on your back. What am I?
Answer: A backpack.
I hang on the wall and show your lessons. Teachers write on me. What am I?
Answer: A board (chalkboard or whiteboard).
I am a place where you eat lunch at school. What am I?
Answer: The cafeteria.
I ring loudly when class is over. What am I?
Answer: The school bell.
I point at the board and help the teacher. What am I?
Answer: A pointer or a stick.
I’m full of numbers and help you add and subtract. What am I?
Answer: A calculator.
I cut paper but I’m not a knife. What am I?
Answer: Scissors.
I hold papers together with a click. What am I?
Answer: A stapler.
You sit at me and write on me in class. What am I?
Answer: A desk.
I’m full of pictures and letters, and I show on a big screen. What am I?
Answer: A computer.
I am on the wall and show the world. What am I?
Answer: A map.
I hold your water and sit on your desk. What am I?
Answer: A water bottle.
I’m a big book with many words and their meanings. What am I?
Answer: A dictionary.
I help you find books in the library. I’m a person. Who am I?
Answer: A librarian.
I am a set of questions you answer in class. What am I?
Answer: A test or quiz.
I’m a list of times and subjects for your day at school. What am I?
Answer: A timetable or schedule.

“What Am I?” Riddles With Answers

Object “What Am I?” Riddles

Riddles With Answers

I have hands but cannot clap. I tell you the time. What am I?
Answer: A clock.
I have keys but no locks. I have space but no room. You can enter, but you can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
I have a neck but no head. I often hold a drink. What am I?
Answer: A bottle.
I’m full of holes, but I still hold water. What am I?
Answer: A sponge.
I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?
Answer: A joke.
The more you take from me, the bigger I get. What am I?
Answer: A hole.
I get wetter the more I dry. What am I?
Answer: A towel.
I have pages but I’m not a website. I tell stories. What am I?
Answer: A book.
I go up and down, but I never move. What am I?
Answer: Stairs.
I have a head and a tail, but no body. What am I?
Answer: A coin.
You throw me out when you want to use me. You take me in when you’re done. What am I?
Answer: An anchor.
I have a mouth but never eat. I have a bed but never sleep. What am I?
Answer: A river.
I can be long or short. You can buy me or grow me. People cut me but also paint me. What am I?
Answer: Nails (fingernails or metal nails).
I have a spine but no bones. What am I?
Answer: A book.
I can be opened, closed, locked, and unlocked, but I’m not a heart. What am I?
Answer: A door.
I am black when you buy me, red when you use me, and gray when you throw me away. What am I?
Answer: Charcoal.
I can cut like a knife, but I’m not metal. I’m made of paper. What am I?
Answer: A paper cut (or a saw-shaped paper), but classic answer: a saw made of paper is odd—better: “a page” is too vague, so we’ll go with: A saw made of paper (trick riddle).
I’m used to carry things, but I’m not a car. I have two straps and stay on your back. What am I?
Answer: A backpack.
I’m taken from a mine, locked up in a wooden case, and used by many students. What am I?
Answer: Pencil lead (graphite).
I can show you the world without leaving your seat. I’m round and sit on a stand. What am I?
Answer: A globe.
I can fly, but I’m not a bird. I have wings but no feathers. People throw me for fun. What am I?
Answer: A paper airplane.
I hold things together with a single bite. I live on desks and click when I work. What am I?
Answer: A stapler.
I’m full of gas but I’m not a car. Kids love me at parties. What am I?
Answer: A balloon.
I show the news but I’m not a newspaper. I move and talk but I’m not alive. What am I?
Answer: A TV.
I’m thin, straight, and sharp at one end. You push me into paper. What am I?
Answer: A pin or thumbtack.
I’m white and used for writing or drawing, but I’m not paper. What am I?
Answer: A whiteboard.
I have wheels and a handle. I help you carry heavy things in the airport. What am I?
Answer: A suitcase or trolley
I can show your reflection but I’m not water. What am I?
Answer: A mirror.
I help you see far away, but I’m not glasses. Sailors use me on ships. What am I?
Answer: A telescope.
I sit on a desk and click all day. I have buttons but no numbers. What am I?
Answer: A computer mouse.
I am a box with no hinges, key, or lid, but inside a golden treasure is hid. What am I?
Answer: An egg.
I’m hard to find, easy to lose, and impossible to forget. What am I?
Answer: A good friend
I work when I’m full and stop when I’m empty, but I’m not a car. What am I?
Answer: A pen.
I have many teeth and one job: cutting. What am I?
Answer: A saw.
I’m hot when I’m on, cold when I’m off. I live in the kitchen. What am I?
Answer: A stove.
I can be liquid, solid, or gas, but I’m always the same. What am I?
Answer: Water.
I have a ring, but no finger. I make a sound when you need me. What am I?
Answer: A telephone.
I stand tall in a corner and light up the room, but I’m not a candle. What am I?
Answer: A floor lamp.
I am a small house with one room, but no doors or windows. I hold a single thing that’s yellow and white. What am I?
Answer: An egg.
I can show time and also help you wake up. What am I?
Answer: An alarm clock.

Animal “What Am I?” Riddles

I have whiskers and fur. I like to chase mice. I purr when I’m happy. What am I?
Answer: A cat.
I wag my tail when I’m glad. I bark when I’m mad. What am I?
Answer: A dog.
I’m very big and gray. I have a trunk and big ears. What am I?
Answer: An elephant.
I live in the ocean. I’m large and blue. I spray water from a hole. What am I?
Answer: A whale.
I have a long neck and eat leaves from tall trees. What am I?
Answer: A giraffe.
I live on a farm and say “moo.” What am I?
Answer: A cow.
I’m pink and oink and roll in the mud. What am I?
Answer: A pig.
I hop and have long ears. I love carrots. What am I?
Answer: A rabbit.
I buzz around flowers and make honey. What am I?
Answer: A bee.
I swim and have fins, but I’m not a shark. What am I?
Answer: A fish.
I’m black and white and look like I’m wearing a tuxedo. I can’t fly, but I swim well. What am I?
Answer: A penguin.
I’m small and squeak and love cheese. What am I?
Answer: A mouse.
I roar loudly and have a mane. What am I?
Answer: A lion.
I have stripes and look like a horse. What am I?
Answer: A zebra.
I sleep in the day and fly at night. I use echo to see. What am I?
Answer: A bat.
I walk slowly and carry my home on my back. What am I?
Answer: A turtle.
I am long and slither on the ground. I sometimes hiss. What am I?
Answer: A snake.
I can climb trees and eat bananas. I swing from branch to branch. What am I?
Answer: A monkey.
I am very fast and spotted. I’m the fastest land animal. What am I?
Answer: A cheetah.
I say “quack” and love ponds. What am I?
Answer: A duck.
I crow in the morning and wake people up. What am I?
Answer: A rooster.
I gobble and am often seen at Thanksgiving. What am I?
Answer: A turkey.
I’m tiny and carry things many times my size. I live in colonies. What am I?
Answer: An ant.
I spin webs and have eight legs. What am I?
Answer: A spider.
I am big and brown, and I sleep in caves. What am I?
Answer: A bear.
I live in the sea, have eight arms, and squirt ink. What am I?
Answer: An octopus.
I am a bird that cannot fly, but I can run very fast. What am I?
Answer: An ostrich.
I howl at the moon and live in a pack. What am I?
Answer: A wolf.
I jump from lily pad to lily pad and love flies. What am I?
Answer: A frog.
I am small and colorful and drink nectar from flowers. What am I?
Answer: A butterfly.

Abstract “What Am I?” Riddles

Riddles With Answers

You can’t see me, but you can feel me. I can lift you up or bring you down. What am I?
Answer: Your mood / feelings.
I can run, but I never walk. I have a mouth, but never talk. What am I?
Answer: A river.
I am always in front of you but can never be seen. What am I?
Answer: The future.
I am not alive, but I can grow. I don’t have lungs, but I need air. Water kills me. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
The more you take from me, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
I follow you everywhere, but only when there is light. What am I?
Answer: Your shadow.
I am easy to get into, but hard to get out of. What am I?
Answer: Trouble.
I am heard, but I have no mouth. I answer, but I do not speak. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
I am there in “today” and “tomorrow,” but not in “yesterday.” What am I?
Answer: The letter “T.”
I am not a person, but I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I grow when you feed me and shrink when you ignore me. What am I?
Answer: Your ego.
You can’t touch me, but I can break. What am I?
Answer: A heart (or trust).
I can bring tears to your eyes, resurrect the dead, make you smile, and reverse time. What am I?
Answer: A memory.
I have no weight, but I can still knock you down. I am invisible, but I’m very strong. What am I?
Answer: A strong wind.
I am free to have but priceless to lose. What am I?
Answer: Trust.
I can fly without wings, cry without eyes, and wherever I go, darkness flies. What am I?
Answer: A cloud.
I begin with love, end with love, and am in the middle of life. What am I?
Answer: The letter “L.”
I am always moving, but I never leave my place. What am I?
Answer: A clock (time).
When you have me, you feel like sharing me. Once you share me, you don’t have me. What am I?
Answer: A secret.
I am not a thing you can see or touch, but I can warm your heart and break it too. What am I?
Answer: Love.
I can be cracked, I can be played, I can be told, and I can be made. What am I?
Answer: A joke.
I can blind you, help you, or show you the way. I am not alive, but I guide every day. What am I?
Answer: Light.
I am the one thing you can never get back. What am I?
Answer: Time.
I am always with you, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, sometimes beside you. But you can never touch me. What am I?
Answer: Your past (or shadow—here: your past).
I can create mountains or move them, build bridges or break them, and I exist only in your mind. What am I?
Answer: Imagination.
I am a question you can never answer “yes” to. What am I?
Answer: “Are you asleep?”
I am yours, but others use me more. I can be good or bad depending on how you use me. What am I?
Answer: Your name or your words (classic: your name).
I am always hungry and must be fed. The finger I touch will soon turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
I exist only when there is light, but direct light kills me. What am I?
Answer: A shadow.
I start with a sound, I end with a sound, and I make things clear without a sound. What am I?
Answer: Silence.
I am the reason you’re reading this and the reason this list exists. I can be playful, deep, funny, or wise. What am I?
Answer: A riddle.

FAQs on Riddles With Answers

1. What is the world’s toughest riddle?

The hardest riddle is often called “The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever.”
In this puzzle, you must find out which of three gods is which.
You can only ask yes-or-no questions, and the gods speak in a language you do not know.

2. What is the 3 god riddle?

The 3 god riddle is a puzzle with three gods: True, False, and Random.
True always tells the truth.
False always lies.
Random answers in any way.
You must discover who is who in only three questions.

3. What flies forever and rests never?

The answer is the wind.
It keeps moving and never stops.

4. What is the answer to 6 ÷ 2½?

First change 2½ to 2.5.
Then solve it:
6 ÷ 2.5 = 2.4

5. How can you get 100 using 123456789?

A simple way is:
123 − 45 − 67 + 89 = 100

6. What is the riddle 98% of Harvard students get wrong?

It is a viral riddle that ends with the question, “Can you guess the riddle?”
The correct answer is “No.”
Many people overthink it, but kids often get it right.

7. What is the answer to 11 11 11 11?

The puzzle is not complete.
It needs math symbols.
A common version is:
11 + 11 + 11 + 11 = 44

8. What is 1 ÷ 0 and why?

1 ÷ 0 is not defined.
No number multiplied by zero can make 1, so the answer does not exist.

9. What is the answer to 3 × 3 + 3 ÷ 3 + 3?

Use the order of operations.
Multiply and divide first, then add:
3 × 3 + 3 ÷ 3 + 3 = 13

10. Why is the number 11 special?

The number 11 is special because it is a prime number.
It is also a repunit, which means it is made of repeating 1s.
It appears in fun patterns, like the date 11/11 11:11.

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Arif Ahmed

I am Arif Ahmed, a teacher and the creator of English Thrive. With a deep passion for the English language and years of teaching experience, I love helping students master English grammar, writing, and communication skills. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced learner, I am here to share practical lessons, clear explanations, and helpful tips to make your learning journey easier and more enjoyable.

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“What Am I?” Riddles With Answers

Object “What Am I?” Riddles

Animal “What Am I?” Riddles

Abstract “What Am I?” Riddles

FAQs on Riddles With Answers

1. What is the world’s toughest riddle?

2. What is the 3 god riddle?

3. What flies forever and rests never?

4. What is the answer to 6 ÷ 2½?

5. How can you get 100 using 123456789?

6. What is the riddle 98% of Harvard students get wrong?

7. What is the answer to 11 11 11 11?

8. What is 1 ÷ 0 and why?

9. What is the answer to 3 × 3 + 3 ÷ 3 + 3?

10. Why is the number 11 special?

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