Riddles

Some of the riddles on this page are familiar from our childhood and many have appeared at Riddle du Jour. The riddles are easier at the beginning and get more challenging as you go down the page. Hold your mouse pointer over the paw print for an answer. See also: Sayings.

Railroad Crossing, look out for the cars. Can you spell that, without any R's?
What's black and white and red all over?
What has four wheels and flies?
What time is it when the clock strikes 13?
When is a door not a door?
When is a baby not a baby?
When is a dog's tail not a tail?
What is the worst vegetable to have on a ship?
What has a face and two hands but no fingers?
What has a neck without a head and two arms without hands?
How can you catch a unique rabbit?
How can you catch a tame rabbit?
What can hold water even though it has holes?
What word is usually pronounced incorrectly?
From what word can you take the whole and still leave some?
How do you make "one" disappear?
What English word is the same when spelled forward or backward or turned upside down?
When are eyes not eyes?
What side of a cat has the most hair?
What has eyes but can't see, a tongue but can't talk, and a soul but can never find love?
If you can buy 1 for $1, 14 for $2, and 145 for $3, what are you buying?
What's wide at the bottom, narrow at the top, and has ears?
How many bricks does it take to complete a brick building?
Captain Kirk of Star Trek has the usual left ear and right ear, but he also has a third ear. What is his third ear called?
What has a foot on each side and one in the middle?
When a carpenter starts a new house, where does she strike the first nail?
What always was, yet I can never be?
Where is there is no south, west, nor east, and weather not fit for man or beast?
What kind of nut has no shell?
What kind of bow can't be untied?
I start with T, I end with T, and my inside is full of T. What am I?
Pronounced as one letter, but written with three,
I'm double, I'm single, I'm found in blue and gray.
Read from both ends, the same either way.
Whatever can I be?
Play my music, if you dare. Turn my crank, although I'm square.
Stand back, or get a scare, when you see my surprising glare.
What am I?
Where does yesterday always follow today?
I'm big, I'm comfortable, but most of all I'm oh, so lazy. I have two arms, but only one foot. What am I?
The strangest creature you'll ever find has two eyes in front and a hundred behind.
If you take two apples from three apples, how many do you have?
Which is correct, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?
What travels around the world but stays in one corner?
What starts with "P", ends with "E", and has many letters?
What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and water, but no fish?
What brightens your day when it's dark, although it's usually in the shade?
Take away my first letter, I remain the same.
Take away my last letter, I remain the same.
Take away all my letters, I still remain the same.
What am I?
What word starts with "E", ends with "E" but only has one letter? It is not the letter E.
Open me and you can't see me without a mirror. Close me and you can't see me at all. What am I?
A beggar's brother died, but the man who died had no brother. How could that be?
What has to be broken before it can be used?
What can be driven although it doesn't have wheels, sliced but stays whole?
One falls but doesn't break. The other breaks but doesn't fall. What are they?
Rock and roll, rock and roll. What rocks but does not roll?
How many months have 28 days?
Iron roof and glass walls, burns and burns but never falls. What is it?
Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth?
How much more are 1990 dollar bills worth than 1980 dollar bills?
What can go up a chimney down, but can't go down a chimney up?
How many three-cent stamps are there in a dozen?
Starting with zero, what is the first whole number to contain the letter "a" in its spelling?
A father and his son, who are injured in a car accident, are rushed to two different hospitals. The boy needs an operation, but the doctor says "I can't operate on this boy, he's my son". How can this be?
Tear one off and scratch its head, what was red is black instead. What is it?
How Long is a Chinese name.
You can hold it but you can't touch it. What is it?
Water, water everywhere. There is one state that has no water. Can you name it?
What's Irish and stays out all night?
If you feed it, it lives. If you give it water it dies. What is it?
You throw away the outside, then cook the inside. Next, you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What is it?
I float on water. Back to front I am the same. Come to think of it so is my name.
They're up near the sky, on something very tall,
Sometimes they die, only then do they fall. What are they?
What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks,
has a bed but never sleeps, has a head but never weeps?
What is voiceless but cries, wingless but flutters,
toothless but bites, and mouthless but mutters?
What is the longest word in the English language?
What wears a coat in the winter and pants in the summer?
What's thrown out when you want to use it, but taken back in when you don't want to use it?
If a bottle with its cork costs $1.10, and the bottle costs a dollar more than the cork, how much is the cork?
What is it that you never want to have, but if you get it, you don't want to lose it?
Rearrange the letters in NEW DOOR to make one word.
What lies on the ground, 100 feet in the air?
What gets wetter as it dries?
What's open when it's closed and closed when it's open?
What's white when dirty but black when clean?
What has more rings than a jewelry store and spends most of the time in church but it can't pray?
If it's walking it must be running but if it's running it must be walking. What is it?
When do you go on red, and stop on green?
What's lower with head but higher without?
What stands on one leg with its heart in its head?
What can go up a hill faster than down?
You answer me, although I never ask you questions. What am I?
What gets larger, the more you take away?
What grows up while growing down?
What grows larger, as it falls?
What is put on the table and cut, but never eaten?
Where does love always mean nothing?
What goes through a door but never goes in and never comes out?
I have keys that open no locks,
I have space, but there is no room,
You can enter, but you can't go in.
What am I?
In my crazy existence, divorce comes before marriage, children before parents, baptism before birth, and death before life. What am I?
How many birthdays does the average person have?
The first man made it but never kept it.
The second man bought it but never used it.
The third man used it but never saw it.
What is it?
What has 6 faces and 21 eyes?
A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and then left on Friday. How is this possible?
A woman in New York marries seven men without getting a divorce. None of the men die, all of the marriages are legal, and she has not committed any crime. How can this be?
What has two strong backbones, and a thousand ribs?
I am a fire's best friend. When fat, my body fills with wind. When pushed to thin, through my nose I blow. Then you can watch the embers glow. What am I?
To enter you need a key, but there is no keyhole. What is it?
A man running home sees another man with a mask waiting for him there. He looks at the other man's hands and then quickly turns around and runs the other way. What is happening?
There is a town where the barber shaves all those who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber?
They have no flesh, feathers, scales, or bone; but they do have fingers and thumbs of their own. What are they?
While walking through a field of wheat,
I picked up something nice to eat.
Not fish, flesh, feather, or bone,
I kept it 'till it walked alone.
What was it?
Many white horses meet on a red hill,
They meet here to clash, but mean no ill will.
Here there are crowns, but no kings to be seen.
Silver treasure is present, but without the queen.
Where am I?
Two sisters are we, one dark and one fair.
In twin towers dwelling, we're quite the pair.
One from land, and one from sea.
Tell us truly, who are we?
Jim pulls his car up to a popular hotel, but upon his arrival he realizes that he is bankrupt. What's going on?
They call me a man, but I'll never have a wife.
I was given a body, but not given life.
They made me a mouth, but didn't give me breath.
Water gives me life but the sun brings me death.
What am I?
I am a basket case, conversing with clouds. My insides are toasty warm, and my multicolored coat keeps me so. What am I?
Tom's mother has three children. One is named Penny, the second is named Nickel. What is the third child's name?
If a farmer had fourteen sheep and all but nine died, how many did she have left?
What ship has two mates, but not a captain?
How many grooves in a phonograph record?
What kind of locks don't need a key? Just use your head, I think you'll see.
What's often held, yet rarely touched; always wet, yet never rusts; sometimes wagged and sometimes bit; to use it well, you must have wit?
Two baseball teams played the usual nine innings. One team won by 3 runs, but not one man reached home plate. How is this possible?
Five little items of an everyday sort, are all in order in a tennis court. What are they?
When I look up it's bright, but when I look down it's dark. What am I?

What two words contain the most letters?
What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two more letters?
What's in the middle of nowhere?
What disappears going from there to here by, but reappears going from here to there?
Forward I'm heavy, backward I'm not.
What is the center of gravity?
What eight-letter word has kst in the middle, in the beginning, and at the end?
What is one thing that all wise men, regardless of their religion or politics, agree is between heaven and earth?
There is a word of letters three. Add two more, and fewer there will be.
What is round at the ends and high in the middle?
You'll find me in meadows, but not in fields.
You'll find me in mountains but not in hills.
You'll find me in the army, but not the navy.
You'll find me in Amsterdam and Milan, but not in New York, or Paris.
Who am I?
A puppy is one, but a dog is not.
A kitten is one, but a cat is not.
A cookie is one, but a cracker is not.
What is it?
I stand at the beginning of time, I complete the coming of night;
I occur twice in eternity, and I'm always within sight.
What am I?
The beginning of eternity, the end of time and space.
The beginning of every end, and the end of every place.
What am I?
In the middle of night, I surround the gong.
In the middle of sight, I end the song.
What am I?
What happens every second, minute, month, and century,
but not every hour, week, year, or decade?
Behind the Green Glass Door are kittens but not cats, puppies but not dogs,
teeth but not mouths, cotton but not shirts, and glass but not frames.
What's behind the Green Glass Door?
What comes twice in a week, once in a year, but never in a day?
I'm in a rock but not a stone, in marrow but not in bone.
I'm in a bolster but not in a bed, not living and not dead.
I'm there when you rest, but I'm not in your bed.
What am I?
'Twas in heaven pronounced, and 'twas muttered in hell, an echo caught faintly the sound as it fell.
On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest, and the depth of the ocean its presence confessed.
What am I?
If Alaska = 2, Arkansas = 1, and Alabama = 3, what is Arizona?
Start with five hundred, and end with the same. Five in the middle is also seen.
First of all figures, first of all letters, take up stations between.
Join all together, and then you will bring,
Before you is the name of an eminent king. Who is the King?
Never serious, having fun; Three dotted letters, all in a row.
Look for me high, but never low. Tell me the word that makes this riddle be so.
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?

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