What do you get when you combine brainteasers, puzzles, and creative thinking? The answer is “riddles”! From easy riddles to hard ones, come and test your knowledge with some of the most entertaining riddles around! See if you can solve them all and have a few laughs along the way. Can you think your way out of these tricky questions and solve the riddles?
Riddles are the perfect way to challenge your mind and flex your problem-solving skills. Think you can solve them all? With our collection of best riddles, you’ll be challenged to think of solutions that range from the simple to the complex. Challenge your friends and family to see who can solve them first, or simply work your way through the riddles for some fun puzzling. There’s no limit to the fun you can have.
Table of Contents
Easy Riddles
Riddle: What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg
Riddle: I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A candle
Riddle: What 5-letter word typed in all capital letters can be read the same upside down?
Answer: SWIMS
Riddle: What begins with an “e” and only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope
Riddle: What can run but Cannot walk?
Answer: A River!
Riddle: Which word is least like the others? Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth?
Answer: Third, it is the only one not ending in “th”
Riddle: What month of the year has 28 days?
Answer: All of them
Riddle: What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge
Riddle: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps
Riddle: What has 88 keys?
Answer: The piano
Riddle: What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle
Riddle: What is the last thing you take off before bed?
Answer: Your feet from the floor!
Riddle: What question can you never answer yes to?
Answer: Are you asleep yet?
Riddle: What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future
Riddle: You bought me for dinner but never eat me. What am I?
Answer: Silverware
Riddle: What can a child make but nobody can see?
Answer: Noise
Riddle: There’s a one-story house in which everything is yellow. Yellow walls, yellow doors, yellow furniture. What color are the stairs?
Answer: There aren’t any—it’s a one-story house
Riddle: I am easy to lift, but hard to throw. What am I?
Answer: A feather
Riddle: What has hands but cannot clap?
Answer: A clock
Riddle: What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age
Riddle: What gets shorter as it grows older?
Answer: A candle
Riddle: How many letters are in the alphabet?
Answer: There are 11 letters in “the alphabet.”
Riddle: A man who was outside in the rain without an umbrella or hat didn’t get a single hair on his head wet. Why?
Answer: He was bald
Riddle: What gets wet while drying?
Answer: A towel
Riddle: What can you catch but never throw?
Answer: A cold
Riddle: What can you keep after giving to someone?
Answer: Your word
Riddle: What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short
Riddle: I shave every day, but my beard stays the same. What am I?
Answer: A barber
Riddle: A cowboy rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and rode out on Friday. How is this possible?
Answer: His horse’s name is Friday
Riddle: What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise
Riddle: You see a boat filled with people, yet there isn’t a single person on board. How is that possible?
Answer: All the people on the boat are married
Riddle: What runs around a whole yard without moving?
Answer: A fence
Riddle: You walk into a room that contains a match, a kerosene lamp, a candle and a fireplace. What would you light first?
Answer: The match
Riddle: What can’t talk but will reply when spoken to?
Answer: An echo
Riddles for Kids
Riddle: David’s parents have three sons: Snap, Crackle, and what’s the name of the third son?
Answer: David
Riddle: I follow you all the time and copy your every move, but you can’t touch me or catch me. What am I?
Answer: Your shadow
Riddle: The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness
Riddle: What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano
Riddle: What can you hold in your left hand but not in your right?
Answer: Your right elbow
Riddle: What is black when it’s clean and white when it’s dirty?
Answer: A chalkboard
Riddle: If you’re running in a race and you pass the person in second place, what place are you in?
Answer: Second place
Riddle: What gets bigger when more is taken away?
Answer: A hole
Riddle: What can fly but no wings?
Answer: Time
Riddle: I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest person can’t hold me for five minutes. What am I?
Answer: Your breath
Riddle: I’m found in socks, scarves and mittens; and often in the paws of playful kittens. What am I?
Answer: Yarn
Riddle: Where does today come before yesterday?
Answer: The dictionary
Riddle: What would you find in the middle of Toronto?
Answer: The letter “o”
Riddle: It belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do. What is it?
Answer: Your name
Riddle: What invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer: A window
Riddle: If you’ve got me, you want to share me; if you share me, you haven’t kept me. What am I?
Answer: A secret
Riddle: What has many rings but no fingers?
Answer: A telephone
Riddle: What can’t be put in a saucepan?
Answer: It’s lid
Riddle: What goes up and down but doesn’t move?
Answer: A staircase
Riddle: Give me a drink, and I will die. Feed me, and I’ll get bigger. What am I?
Answer: A fire
Riddle: Which word is always spelled incorrectly in the dictionary?
Answer: Incorrectly
Funny Riddles
Riddle: What has lots of eyes, but can’t see?
Answer: A potato
Riddle: What has one eye, but can’t see?
Answer: A needle
Riddle: What has many needles, but doesn’t sew?
Answer: A Christmas tree
Riddle: How can you drop a raw egg from a height onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
Answer: Concrete floors are very hard to crack
Riddle: What has hands, but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock
Riddle: What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter W!
Riddle: What has legs, but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A table
Riddle: Forward, I am heavy; backward, I am not. What am I?
Answer: A ton
Riddle: What has one head, one foot and four legs?
Answer: A bed
Riddle: What can you catch, but not throw?
Answer: A cold
Riddle: What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left hand
Riddle: What is the longest word in the dictionary?
Answer: Smiles, because there is a mile between each ‘s’
Riddle: What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: A rubber band
Riddle: What has many teeth, but can’t bite?
Answer: A comb
Riddle: If two snakes marry, what will their towels say?
Answer: Hiss and hers
Riddle: What building has the most stories?
Answer: A library
Riddle: What is cut on a table, but is never eaten?
Answer: A deck of cards
Riddle: What has words, but never speaks?
Answer: A book
Math Riddles
Riddle: I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
Answer: Seven
Riddle: If two’s company, and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine
Riddle: What three numbers, none of which is zero, give the same result whether they’re added or multiplied?
Answer: One, two and three
Riddle: I add 5 to 9 and get 2. The answer is correct, so what am I?
Answer: A clock. When it is 9 a.m., adding 5 hours would make it 2 p.m.
Riddle: Mary has four daughters, and each of her daughters has a brother. How many children does Mary have?
Answer: Five—each daughter has the same brother
Riddle: Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?
Answer: Neither—they both weigh a ton
Riddle: Three doctors said that Bill was their brother. Bill says he has no brothers. How many brothers does Bill actually have?
Answer: None. He has three sisters
Riddle: Two fathers and two sons are in a car, yet there are only three people in the car. How?
Answer: They are a grandfather, father and son
Riddle: What is 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat, and 2/4 goat?
Answer: Chicago!
Riddle: The day before yesterday I was 21, and next year I will be 24. When is my birthday?
Answer: December 31; today is January 1
Riddle: A little girl goes to the store and buys one dozen eggs. As she is going home, all but three break. How many eggs are left unbroken?
Answer: Three
Riddle: A man describes his daughters, saying, “They are all blonde, but two; all brunette but two; and all redheaded but two.” How many daughters does he have?
Answer: Three: A blonde, a brunette and a redhead
Riddle: If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
Answer: 977 animals (100 x 2 = 200; 200 + 800 = 1000; 1000 – 23 = 977)
Riddle: If there are three apples and you take away two, how many apples do you have?
Answer: You have two apples
Riddle: If you multiply this number by any other number, the answer will always be the same. What number is this?
Answer: Zero
Riddle: A girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each brother has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are there in the family?
Answer: Four sisters and three brothers
Riddle: What’s a single-digit number with no value?
Answer: Zero
Really Hard Riddles for Adults
Riddle: What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence
Riddle: What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river
Riddle: Four cars come to a four-way stop, each coming from a different direction. They can’t decide who got there first, so they all go forward at the same time. All 4 cars go, but none crash into each other. How is this possible?
Answer: They all made right-hand turns
Riddle: Speaking of rivers, a man calls his dog from the opposite side of the river. The dog crosses the river without getting wet, and without using a bridge or boat. How?
Answer: The river was frozen
Riddle: I have a head like a cat and feet like a cat, but I am not a cat. What am I?
Answer: A kitten
Riddle: What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light
Riddle: If you drop me I’m sure to crack, but give me a smile and I’ll always smile back. What am I?
Answer: A mirror
Riddle: What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: A palm!
Riddle: 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
Riddle: People make me, save me, change me, raise me. What am I?
Answer: Money
Riddle: What breaks yet never falls, and what falls yet never breaks?
Answer: Day, and night
Riddle: They come out at night without being called, and are lost in the day without being stolen. What are they?
Answer: Stars!
Riddle: The person who makes it has no need of it; the person who buys it has no use for it. The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?
Answer: A coffin
Riddle: What goes through cities and fields, but never moves?
Answer: A road
Riddle: You’ll find me in Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. But never Neptune, or Venus. What am I?
Answer: The letter “R”
Riddle: I am always hungry and will die if not fed, but whatever I touch will soon turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire
Riddle: A man looks at a painting in a museum and says, “Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the painting?
Answer: The man’s son
Riddle: I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?
Answer: A joke
Riddle: With pointed fangs I sit and wait; with piercing force I crunch out fate; grabbing victims, proclaiming might; physically joining with a single bite. What am I?
Answer: A stapler
Riddle: When you stop to look, you can always see me. But if you try to touch me, you can never feel me. Although you walk towards me, I remain the same distance from you. What am I?
Answer: The horizon
Riddle: I have lakes with no water, mountains with no stone and cities with no buildings. What am I?
Answer: A map
Riddle: What can go through glass without breaking it?
Answer: Light
Riddle: What kind of room has no walls, door or windows?
Answer: A mushroom
