60 riddles with answers

A good riddle is fair. Every word in it is true, the answer is an ordinary thing you already know, and the moment you hear it you want to say "oh, come on". A bad riddle needs a fact you could not have known, or an answer nobody would accept at a dinner table.

Here are 60 riddles with answers, all in our own words, in five sets: easy ones for kids and warm-ups, word riddles, tricky riddles for adults, riddles for work and a set of indoor scavenger hunt riddles where every answer is a spot in the house. The answers are folded under each set so you can test yourself first.

• Easy riddles
• Word riddles
• For adults
• For work
• Scavenger hunt
• A riddle a day

How to solve a riddle

• Look for the second meaning. If a riddle says something has a neck, a face or a tongue, ask what else has one.
• Say it out loud. Plenty of riddles hang on a word that sounds like another word.
• Start with the last line. It is usually the cleanest clue.
• Think small and ordinary. The answer is almost never exotic. It is in your kitchen, your pocket or your alphabet.

Easy riddles (good for kids)

1. I have lots of keys but I cannot open a single door. Press them and I sing. What am I?
2. What has ears but cannot hear a thing, and pops when it gets hot?
3. What has to be broken before you can use it?
4. What has a neck but no head, and wears a cap?
5. What has one eye but cannot see, and helps you mend a hole?
6. What gets bigger the more you take away from it?
7. What has four legs but never goes for a walk?
8. I am full of holes, but I can still hold water. What am I?
9. What can you catch but never throw?
10. What runs but never walks, and has a mouth but never talks?
11. What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
12. The more of me there is, the less you see. What am I?

Answers to the easy riddles

1. A piano.
2. Corn. It grows on ears, and the kernels pop.
3. An egg.
4. A bottle.
5. A needle.
6. A hole.
7. A table.
8. A sponge.
9. A cold.
10. A river.
11. A glove.
12. Darkness.

Word riddles

1. Which five-letter word gets shorter when you add two letters to it?
2. Which word is always spelled wrong in the dictionary?
3. What begins with T, ends with T and has T in it?
4. Which word contains all 26 letters?
5. Which word still sounds the same after you take away four of its five letters?
6. What starts with E, ends with E and usually holds only one letter?
7. Forwards I am heavy. Backwards I am not. What am I?
8. What has four letters, sometimes nine, and never five?
9. I am a word of three letters. Add two more and fewer there will be. What word am I?
10. Which room has no doors, no windows and no walls?
11. What is black and white and read all over?
12. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?

Answers to the word riddles

1. Short. Add "er" and you get shorter.
2. Wrong.
3. A teapot.
4. Alphabet.
5. Queue. Drop the "ueue" and you still have Q.
6. An envelope.
7. Ton. Backwards it spells "not".
8. The riddle itself: "what" has four letters, "sometimes" has nine and "never" has five.
9. Few. Add two letters and it becomes "fewer".
10. A mushroom.
11. A newspaper.
12. Seven. Take away the S and you get "even".

Tricky riddles for adults

1. What can travel all around the world while staying in one corner?
2. What has plenty of teeth but never bites anyone?
3. What belongs to you, but other people use it far more than you do?
4. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years?
5. I am lighter than a feather, yet the strongest person alive cannot hold me for five minutes. What am I?
6. What can fill a whole room but takes up no space at all?
7. The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
8. What disappears the moment you say its name?
9. I shave every day, but my beard stays exactly the same. Who am I?
10. What goes up every year and never comes down?
11. What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees and rivers but no water?
12. If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, I am gone. What am I?

Answers to the tricky riddles

1. A stamp.
2. A comb.
3. Your name.
4. The letter M.
5. Your breath.
6. Light.
7. Footsteps.
8. Silence.
9. A barber.
10. Your age.
11. A map.
12. A secret.

Riddles for work

For the top of a team meeting, the office newsletter or a lunchroom whiteboard. Post one in the morning and the answer after lunch.

1. I hold your place but never sit in it. What am I?
2. I carry your words around the world and never open my mouth. What am I?
3. What is always in front of you at work, but you can never see it?
4. What has a spine but not a single bone?
5. I can be cracked, made, told and played. What am I?
6. What has a head and a tail but no body?
7. I am full of keys that open nothing. I have a space but no room, and you can enter but never go inside. What am I?
8. What can you hold for an hour without ever touching it?
9. What gets sharper the more you use it?
10. What do you keep after you give it to someone?
11. I jam but I am never sweet. I copy but I never cheat. What am I?
12. What starts with P, ends with E and has thousands of letters?

Answers to the work riddles

1. A bookmark.
2. An email.
3. The future.
4. A book.
5. A joke.
6. A coin.
7. A keyboard.
8. A conversation (or a meeting).
9. Your mind.
10. Your word.
11. A photocopier.
12. A post office.

Riddles for an indoor scavenger hunt

Every answer here is a place in the house, so each riddle can be the clue that leads to the next. Write them on cards, hide each card at the answer to the one before, and hand the first card to the hunters. Use a shower or bath clue only where the kids are old enough to be there on their own.

1. I keep things cold, but I never catch a chill. Look inside me for your next clue.
2. I spin your clothes round and round until they come out clean.
3. Fill me up and splash about. Pull my plug and the water runs out.
4. Pop! I go when breakfast is done. Look beside me, not inside me.
5. Lots of stories live on me, standing in a row with their spines out.
6. I show you the whole world, but I never leave the lounge room.
7. I have arms and a back but no legs to walk. Check under my cushions.
8. I wash up after dinner and never complain once.
9. I make it rain indoors, but only when you turn me on.
10. I go up and down all day, but I never move an inch.
11. I am always hungry for your rubbish.
12. I hum, I spin and I ding when I am done.

Answers to the scavenger hunt riddles

1. The fridge.
2. The washing machine.
3. The bath.
4. The toaster.
5. The bookshelf.
6. The TV.
7. The sofa or couch.
8. The dishwasher (or whoever does the dishes).
9. The shower.
10. The stairs.
11. The bin.
12. The microwave.

A new riddle every day

Once you have worked through these, the riddle of the day sets three fresh ones every day, easy, medium and hard, all written for Keyhole Games. You spin the answer into the rings of a brass cylinder lock, and the lock opens itself the moment the word is right. There is no submit button and no timer.

• Free, every day. No download, no account. The new riddles arrive at midnight wherever you are.
• Free hints. Three per riddle, one at a time. They never cost you your streak.
• A streak and a key ring. Every lock you open earns a key for your key ring, and your streak counts each day you finish. One spare key covers a missed day.
• A share card with no spoilers. It shows your marks, never the answers.

It is one of eight free daily puzzles, alongside a daily quiz, a word grid, a whodunit and a sliding block puzzle. For more to think about, try our brain teasers for adults.

Updated 28 October 2026.