Riddles with answers
I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water. What am I?
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What are some good riddles with answers?
Try the riddle in the box: type your answer and press Check, tap Hint for a clue, or Show answer. There are over 200 riddles in 6 categories: easy, hard, funny, for kids, logic, and math. Every riddle is written for this page, and the list under the game shows each one with its answer.
How to play
- Read the riddle in the box. Pick a category first if you like.
- Type your answer and press Check. Capitals, a or the, and plurals do not matter.
- Stuck? Tap Hint for a clue, or Show answer to give up. Giving up ends your streak.
- Press Next for a new one. Each one comes up once before any repeats.
For a group, choose Pass the phone. One player reads the riddle out loud and can peek at the answer. The others shout guesses, and the reader gives +1 to the first right answer. Next passes the phone to the next reader.
All 249 riddles with answers
Tap Answer under a riddle to see it. Try each one before you look.
What has to be broken before anyone can use it?
Answer
An egg
What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer
A towel
I am tall when I am young and short when I am old. What am I?
Answer
A candle
I have 88 keys, but I cannot open a single door. What am I?
Answer
A piano
I have a face and two hands. I never stop running, but I have no legs. What am I?
Answer
A clock
I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water. What am I?
Answer
A map
What can travel all around the world while it stays in one corner?
Answer
A stamp
The more of these you take, the more of them you leave behind. What are they?
Answer
Footsteps
Shout into a canyon and I shout back. I have no mouth and no ears. What am I?
Answer
An echo
I follow you all day, but I vanish in the dark. What am I?
Answer
Your shadow
If you share me, you do not have me anymore. What am I?
Answer
A secret
Say my name, and I am gone. What am I?
Answer
Silence
The more you take out of me, the bigger I get. What am I?
Answer
A hole
The more there is of me, the less you can see. What am I?
Answer
Darkness
What goes up every year and never comes back down?
Answer
Your age
I am full of holes, but I still hold water. What am I?
Answer
A sponge
What has one eye but cannot see?
Answer
A needle
What has lots of eyes but cannot see a thing?
Answer
A potato
What has many teeth but never bites anyone?
Answer
A comb
What has four legs but cannot walk?
Answer
A table
What has two banks but not a single coin?
Answer
A river
What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer
A coin
What has a neck but no head?
Answer
A bottle
What has bark but never bites?
Answer
A tree
What can you catch but never throw?
Answer
A cold
What can you break without touching it?
Answer
A promise
What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
Answer
Your name
Which word gets shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer
Short
Which word starts with E, ends with E, and holds only one letter?
Answer
An envelope
What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, and never in a thousand years?
Answer
The letter M
What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer
Tomorrow
I weigh nothing, but even the strongest person cannot hold me for long. What am I?
Answer
Your breath
Feed me and I grow. Give me a drink and I die out. What am I?
Answer
Fire
What has lots of money but never spends any of it?
Answer
A bank
What goes up and down but never moves?
Answer
Stairs
What goes up when the rain comes down?
Answer
An umbrella
What has words but never speaks?
Answer
A book
I have five fingers but no bones and no skin. What am I?
Answer
A glove
What has ears but cannot hear?
Answer
Corn
Where does Thursday come before Wednesday?
Answer
In the dictionary
Rich people need it, poor people have it, and if you eat it, you starve. What is it?
Answer
Nothing
What starts with T, ends with T, and has T in it?
Answer
A teapot
You can stand on me in winter. Warm me up and I turn back into water. What am I?
Answer
Ice
I am made in winter, I have a carrot for a nose, and I melt in spring. What am I?
Answer
A snowman
I appear after the rain and wear a stripe of every color. What am I?
Answer
A rainbow
You cannot see me, but you can feel me, and I make kites fly. What am I?
Answer
The wind
I have three feet, but I cannot walk. What am I?
Answer
A yardstick
If you drop me, I may crack. If you smile at me, I always smile back. What am I?
Answer
A mirror
Black and white, I cannot fly, but I swim very well. What am I?
Answer
A penguin
I have a trunk that I never pack, big ears, and four thick gray legs. What am I?
Answer
An elephant
I carry my house on my back everywhere I go. What am I?
Answer
A turtle
I buzz from flower to flower and make something sweet. What am I?
Answer
A bee
I have the longest neck of any animal. What am I?
Answer
A giraffe
What wakes you up every morning but never sleeps itself?
Answer
An alarm clock
I am soft, I live on your bed, and your head rests on me every night. What am I?
Answer
A pillow
I have bristles, and I visit your mouth twice a day. What am I?
Answer
A toothbrush
I have twelve parts, and each part has its own name. I show you every day of the year. What am I?
Answer
A calendar
You wear me on your foot, but I am not a shoe. One of me often gets lost in the wash. What am I?
Answer
A sock
I am green outside, red inside, and full of black seeds. What am I?
Answer
A watermelon
You peel me, I am yellow, and monkeys love me. What am I?
Answer
A banana
I can make you cry, but I never hurt your feelings. What am I?
Answer
An onion
I have a knob and hinges. You open me and close me every day. What am I?
Answer
A door
I am small and made of metal, and I open locks. What am I?
Answer
A key
I run all day when you have a cold, but I have no legs. What am I?
Answer
Your nose
What disappears as soon as you stand up?
Answer
Your lap
Which word is spelled with one letter, and the next four letters are silent?
Answer
Queue
Which word is always spelled wrong in the dictionary?
Answer
Wrong
I have waves but no hair, and I am full of salt. What am I?
Answer
The ocean
What flies without wings?
Answer
Time
What has to be answered, but never asks a question?
Answer
A phone
What goes through towns and over hills, but never moves?
Answer
A road
What has four wheels and flies?
Answer
A garbage truck
Which room has no doors and no windows?
Answer
A mushroom
Which kind of tree can you hold in your hand?
Answer
A palm
What do you call a bear with no teeth?
Answer
A gummy bear
What has a ring but no finger?
Answer
A phone
What gets sharper the more you use it?
Answer
Your brain
What can fill a whole room but takes up no space?
Answer
Light
I am an odd number. Take one letter away and I become even. What number am I?
Answer
Seven
Which three numbers give the same answer when you add them and when you multiply them?
Answer
1, 2 and 3
If two is company and three is a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer
Nine
How many months have 28 days?
Answer
All of them
I am a three-digit number. My tens digit is five more than my ones digit, and my hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit. What number am I?
Answer
194
When Maya was 6, her brother was half her age. Maya is 40 now. How old is her brother?
Answer
37
A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many sheep are left?
Answer
9
There are 3 apples on a table, and you take 2. How many apples do you have?
Answer
2
What can you put in a bucket to make it lighter?
Answer
A hole
A rooster lays an egg on top of a barn roof. Which way does the egg roll?
Answer
Roosters do not lay eggs
How far can you walk into a forest?
Answer
Halfway
What has 13 hearts but nothing else inside?
Answer
A deck of cards
Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I?
Answer
Ton
Which word holds every one of the 26 letters?
Answer
Alphabet
I am black when you buy me, red when you use me, and gray when you throw me away. What am I?
Answer
Charcoal
What has its bottom at the top?
Answer
Your legs
What weighs more, a kilo of feathers or a kilo of bricks?
Answer
Neither
What has lots of needles but never sews?
Answer
A pine tree
What has one head, one foot, and four legs?
Answer
A bed
What runs all around a yard but never moves?
Answer
A fence
Which building has the most stories?
Answer
A library
What do you call a fish with no eyes?
Answer
Fsh
What starts with P, ends with E, and has thousands of letters?
Answer
A post office
Jo's mom has four children: April, May, June, and who?
Answer
Jo
Which kind of band never plays music?
Answer
A rubber band
What is always in front of you, but you can never see it?
Answer
The future
What can you hold in your left hand, but never in your right?
Answer
Your right hand
What do people cut on a table but never eat?
Answer
A deck of cards
I have branches, but no leaves, no trunk, and no fruit. What am I?
Answer
A bank
What has a spine but no bones?
Answer
A book
What tastes things better than it smells them?
Answer
Your tongue
What can you keep after you give it to someone?
Answer
Your word
What is easy to get into but hard to get out of?
Answer
Trouble
Cut me open and count my rings to learn how old I am. What am I?
Answer
A tree
What is orange and sounds like a parrot?
Answer
A carrot
What did the ocean say to the beach?
Answer
Nothing, it just waved
Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Answer
Because 7 ate 9
What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?
Answer
A dino-snore
What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?
Answer
A person
What has a heart that never beats?
Answer
An artichoke
Two fathers and two sons go fishing. Each one catches a fish, but they catch only 3 fish. How?
Answer
There are only 3 people: grandfather, father and son
I have keys but no locks, space but no room, and you can enter but never go inside. What am I?
Answer
A keyboard
What has a tongue but cannot talk?
Answer
A shoe
What four-letter word reads the same forward, backward, and upside down?
Answer
NOON
Which English word has three double letters in a row?
Answer
Bookkeeper
What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer
The letter W
What is in the center of gravity?
Answer
The letter V
Which word of three letters becomes fewer when you add two letters?
Answer
Few
You throw me out when you want to use me, and you take me in when you are done. What am I?
Answer
An anchor
Which bus crossed the ocean?
Answer
Columbus
Which kind of coat goes on wet?
Answer
A coat of paint
Which invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer
A window
What did one wall say to the other wall?
Answer
I will meet you at the corner
Why did the bicycle fall over?
Answer
It was two-tired
What do you call cheese that is not yours?
Answer
Nacho cheese
What do you call a deer with no eyes?
Answer
No idea
What becomes dirtier the whiter it gets?
Answer
A chalkboard
What do you call a boomerang that never comes back?
Answer
A stick
What is harder to catch the faster you run?
Answer
Your breath
Where do fish keep their money?
Answer
In the river bank
What do you call a dog that does magic tricks?
Answer
A labracadabrador
What did the zero say to the eight?
Answer
Nice belt
Why are fish so smart?
Answer
They live in schools
How do you make the number one disappear?
Answer
Add a G to make gone
What is 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat, and 2/4 goat?
Answer
Chicago
Double me, then add 4, and you get 20. Which number am I?
Answer
8
Half of me is the same as a quarter of 40. Which number am I?
Answer
20
I am the only number with as many letters in my name as my value. Which number am I?
Answer
4
Multiply me by any number, and the answer is always me. Which number am I?
Answer
0
How many times can you take 5 away from 25?
Answer
Once
I have six faces and 21 eyes, but I cannot see. What am I?
Answer
A die
When can you add 5 to 9 and get 2?
Answer
On a clock
What comes next: J, F, M, A, M, J, J, ?
Answer
A
What is the end of everything?
Answer
The letter G
Before Mount Everest was found, what was the highest mountain on Earth?
Answer
Mount Everest
What can you serve but never eat?
Answer
A tennis ball
An electric train goes north at full speed. Which way does its smoke go?
Answer
There is no smoke
In a race, you pass the runner in second place. Which place are you in now?
Answer
Second
A rider came to town on Friday, stayed three days, and left on Friday. How?
Answer
The horse is named Friday
What has no beginning, no end, and no middle?
Answer
A circle
What is easy to lift but hard to throw far?
Answer
A feather
What can you hear, but never see or touch?
Answer
A sound
Which tire does not move when a car turns right?
Answer
The spare tire
What is red and bad for your teeth?
Answer
A brick
Which is faster, hot or cold?
Answer
Hot
Which key opens a banana?
Answer
A monkey
What do you call an alligator in a vest?
Answer
An investigator
What has four eyes but cannot see?
Answer
Mississippi
What do you call a pig that does karate?
Answer
A pork chop
What did the big flower say to the little flower?
Answer
Hi, bud
Why can a nose not be 12 inches long?
Answer
Then it would be a foot
It has the head of a cat, the feet of a cat, and the tail of a cat, but it is not a cat. What is it?
Answer
A kitten
Which animal can jump higher than a house?
Answer
Any animal
Which letter of the alphabet holds the most water?
Answer
C
What do you call a cow with no legs?
Answer
Ground beef
Which subject is a witch best at?
Answer
Spelling
Why did the cookie go to the doctor?
Answer
It felt crummy
What breaks at dawn, and what falls at dusk without a scratch?
Answer
Day and night
What appears once in a year, twice in a week, and never in a day?
Answer
The letter E
Lay me on my side and I go on forever. Cut me in half and I am nothing. What am I?
Answer
8
What is something you will never see again?
Answer
Yesterday
What do the numbers 11, 69, and 88 have in common?
Answer
They read the same upside down
I am a two-digit number. My digits add up to 9, and my tens digit is one more than my ones digit. What am I?
Answer
54
I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?
Answer
A joke
I have no life, but I can die. What am I?
Answer
A battery
You find me in socks, scarves, and mittens, and between the paws of kittens. What am I?
Answer
Yarn
I fly without wings and cry without eyes. Where I go, darkness follows. What am I?
Answer
A cloud
I shave every day, but my beard stays the same. Who am I?
Answer
A barber
What can be stolen, mixed up, or changed, but never leaves you all your life?
Answer
Your identity
I am an instrument that you can hear but never see or touch. What am I?
Answer
Your voice
I can be long or short, grown or bought, painted or bare. What am I?
Answer
Fingernails
What is black and white and read all over?
Answer
A newspaper
What do you call a can opener that does not work?
Answer
A can't opener
Why was the broom late?
Answer
It overswept
Which game does a tornado like best?
Answer
Twister
What do you call a dinosaur that knows a lot of words?
Answer
A thesaurus
Which shoes do frogs wear?
Answer
Open-toad shoes
What do you call a pile of kittens?
Answer
A meowntain
Which month do soldiers dislike?
Answer
March
What do you call a bee that cannot decide?
Answer
A maybe
Why did the music teacher need a ladder?
Answer
To reach the high notes
Which part of a computer does an astronaut like best?
Answer
The space bar
Why do skeletons never fight each other?
Answer
They do not have the guts
What do you call a bull that is sleeping?
Answer
A bulldozer
How do astronauts plan a party?
Answer
They planet
Why should you never trust an atom?
Answer
They make up everything
What do clouds wear under their clothes?
Answer
Thunderwear
Which kind of music scares balloons?
Answer
Pop
What kind of dog never bites?
Answer
A hot dog
What do you call a train that sneezes?
Answer
An achoo-choo train
What do you get when you cross a vampire with a snowman?
Answer
Frostbite
What is the hardest part of learning to ride a bike?
Answer
The ground
What do you call a fake noodle?
Answer
An impasta
How does a penguin build its house?
Answer
Igloos it together
What do you call a bear caught in the rain?
Answer
A drizzly bear
What do you call an elephant that does not matter?
Answer
An irrelephant
What is brown and sticky?
Answer
A stick
What can you hold without ever touching it?
Answer
Your breath
Which letter is a vegetable when you say it?
Answer
P
Which seven-letter word becomes longer when you take away its third letter?
Answer
Lounger
Which word starts with IN, ends with AND, and has KST in the middle?
Answer
Inkstand
What is the longest word in the dictionary?
Answer
Smiles
Which ship has two mates but no captain?
Answer
A friendship
What is a cat's favorite color?
Answer
Purr-ple
Why did the scarecrow win a prize?
Answer
He was outstanding in his field
I have a neck but no head, and two arms but no hands. What am I?
Answer
A shirt
What do you call a snowman in July?
Answer
A puddle
What falls all the time but never gets hurt?
Answer
Rain
Which animal is always at a baseball game?
Answer
A bat
Why did the math book look sad?
Answer
It had too many problems
What is a math teacher's favorite dessert?
Answer
Pie
What did the triangle say to the circle?
Answer
You are pointless
Why do plants hate math?
Answer
It gives them square roots
What do you call a hen that counts her eggs?
Answer
A mathemachicken
What do you get when you divide the distance around a pumpkin by its width?
Answer
Pumpkin pi
What has six legs but walks on four?
Answer
A horse with a rider
A father's child and a mother's child, but nobody's son. Who am I?
Answer
A daughter
Which two meals can you never eat for breakfast?
Answer
Lunch and dinner
The day before two days after the day before tomorrow is Saturday. What day is it today?
Answer
Friday
What comes next: M, T, W, T, F, S, ?
Answer
S
What comes next: O, T, T, F, F, S, S, E, ?
Answer
N
What comes next: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, ?
Answer
36
What comes next: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ?
Answer
13
A doctor gives you 3 pills and says to take one every half hour. How long do the pills last?
Answer
One hour
How many letters are in the alphabet?
Answer
11
Which word looks the same upside down and backward when you write it in capitals?
Answer
SWIMS
Where can you find a dog with no legs?
Answer
Right where you left it
I point north all day, but I never walk there. What am I?
Answer
A compass
What always goes to bed with its shoes on?
Answer
A horse
I have six letters. Take one away, and twelve is left. What am I?
Answer
Dozens
I am a word of three letters, and I am also a small green seed. Take away my last two letters, and I still sound the same. What am I?
Answer
Pea
Questions
Do I have to type the exact answer?
No. Capitals, a or the, plurals, and a small typo do not matter, and many riddles take more than one answer: a comb or a zipper both have teeth that never bite. Numbers work as digits or as words.
How do I send a riddle to a friend?
Press Copy link to this riddle, or Share on a phone. The link opens the same riddle with the answer hidden, so your friend can try it first.
Can we play riddles as a group?
Yes. Choose Pass the phone. One player reads the riddle out loud and may peek at the answer. The others guess, the reader gives +1 to the first right answer, and Next passes the phone on.
What makes a good riddle?
A good riddle describes an everyday thing in a surprising way, so the answer feels obvious once you hear it. The best ones use a word with two meanings, like the hands of a clock or the bank of a river.
Are the riddles OK for kids and school?
Yes. Every riddle is clean and fine for a class. For young children, choose For kids or Easy, or open the page of riddles for kids.