Thought-based games generally fall under the umbrella term of “brain teasers,” riddles are sometimes referred to as these. Along with crosswords, Sudoku puzzles, and even fun math problems, riddles are just one type of brain teaser.
In a riddle, one player poses a perplexing question, and the other player must ascertain its meaning. In other words, the key to solving the riddle is to recognize that one of the words is being used in a surprising or unexpected way. Riddles frequently rely on puns and double entendres.
We all know that children need to play games and solve puzzles all the time in order to properly develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills, but most of us don’t realize that adults need to play “brain games/brain teasers” as well.
The abilities of children and even adults in logic, problem-solving, and critical thinking can all benefit from riddles. Riddle solving is not only fun, but also helps improve mental ability by activating both sides of our brain hemispheres.
A long period of time spent delving into a riddle can improve our mental acuity, focus, and concentration. Riddles can be a fantastic challenge that inspires kids and adults alike to keep working.
Riddles are meant to be fun and also teasing your brain cells, here we have compiled 60 fun and intellectually challenging riddles with answers for a good time with your family and friends, read on…
- A plane crashed between the border of France and Belgium. Where were the survivors buried?
Answer: They weren’t. Survivors don’t need to be buried.
- What runs, but never walks. Murmurs, but never talks. Has a bed, but never sleeps. And has a mouth, but never eats?
Answer: A river.
- I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
- 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.
- 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.
- Two in a corner, one in a room, zero in a house, but one in a shelter. What am I?
Answer: The letter “R.”
- What is the end of everything?
Answer: The letter “G.”
- I have branches, but no fruit, trunk, or leaves. What am I?
Answer: Bank.
- What belongs to you, but everyone else uses it.
Answer: Your name.
- If your uncle’s sister is not your aunt, what relation is she to you?
Answer: Your mother.
- Sara has four daughters, and each of her daughters has a brother. How many children does Sara have?
Answer: Five—each daughter has the same brother.
- Two fathers and two sons are in a car, yet there are only three people in the car. How?
Answer: They are grandfather, father, and son.
- Until I am measured, I am not known. Yet how you miss me, When I have flown. What am I?
Answer: Time.
- How much dirt is in a hole that’s two feet by three feet?
Answer: None, it is a hole.
- What begins with an “e” and only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope
- What do you throw out when you want to use it but take in when you don’t want to use it?
Answer: An anchor.
- You see me once in June, twice in November, and not at all in May. What am I?
Answer: The letter “E.”
- What word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly.
- A man was walking in the rain. He was in the middle of nowhere. He had nothing and nowhere to hide. He came home all wet, but not a single hair on his head was wet. Why is that?
Answer: The man was bald.
- What word is pronounced the same if you take away four of its five letters?
Answer: Queue
- What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence
- What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light
- Forwards I am heavy, backward I am not. What am I?
Answer: Ton.
- What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
- What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment, and never in 1,000 years?
Answer: The letter “M.”
- What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: Your tongue.
- What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise
- Which month has 28 days?
Answer: All of them.
- The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness
- What runs around the whole yard without moving?
Answer: Fence
- What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
- What building has the most stories?
Answer: The library.
- I am weightless but put me in a bucket and I will make it lighter. What am I?
Answer: A hole.
- What has many hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A deck of cards.
- What is a scarecrow’s favorite fruit?
Answer: Straw-berries.
- What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left hand
- What has one eye, but can’t see?
Answer: A needle
- What can travel all around the world without leaving its corner?
Answer: A stamp
- A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks who it is. The man replies, “Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who was in the photograph?
Answer: His son.
- A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?
Answer: The river was frozen.
- I am the beginning of sorrow and the end of sickness. You cannot express happiness without me yet I am in the midst of crosses. I am always in risk yet never in danger. You may find me in the sun, but I am never out of darkness. Who am I?
Answer: The letter S.
- Fourteen of the kids in the class are girls. Eight of the kids wear blue shirts. Two of the kids are neither girls or wear a blue shirt. If five of the kids are girls who wear blue shirts, how many kids are in the class?
Answer: 19.
- Paul’s height is six feet, he is an assistant at a butcher’s shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh?
Answer: Meat.
- You’re escaping a maze, and there are three doors in front of you. The door on the left leads to a pit of lava. The door in the center leads to a room filled with deadly gas. The door on the right leads to a lion that hasn’t eaten in three months. Which door do you choose?
Answer: The door on the right. A lion that hasn’t eaten in three months would be dead.
- If I am holding a bee, what do I have in my eye?
Answer: Beauty. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder (bee holder).
- What is 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat, and 2/4 goat?
Answer: Chicago.
- A red house is made from red bricks. A blue house is made from blue bricks. A yellow house is made from yellow bricks. What is a green house made from?
Answer: Glass.
- 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.
- There is a word in the English language in which the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four signify a great man, and the whole word, a great woman. What is the word?
Answer: Heroine
- In my hand, I have two coins that are newly minted. Together, they total 30 cents. One isn’t a nickel. What are the coins?
Answer: A quarter and a nickel.
- Which three letters can frighten a thief away?
Answer: ICU.
- Is the capital of Kentucky pronounced Louisville or Luee-ville?
Answer: Neither. The capital is Frankfort.
- I have a large money box, 10 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. Roughly how many coins can I place until my money box is no longer empty?
Answer: Just one, after which it will no longer be empty.
- What is unusual about the following words: revive, banana, grammar, voodoo, assess, potato, dresser, uneven?
Answer: Take the first letter of each word and place it at the end. It will spell the same word backward.
- How can a man who shaves several times a day still sport a long beard?
Answer: He is a barber.
- What fastens two people yet touches only one?
Answer: A wedding ring.
- An elevator is on the ground floor. There are five people in the elevator including me. When the lift reaches the first floor, one person gets out and two people get in. The lift goes up to the second floor, three people get out, five people get in. It then goes up to the next floor up, no-one gets out but 12 people get in. Halfway up to the next floor up the elevator cable snaps, it crashes to the floor. Everyone else dies in the elevator except me. How did I survive?
Answer: I got off on the first floor.
- Chef Andrea has to light the kitchen stoves to open her restaurant for the day. There are three stoves in the kitchen: A glass stove, a brick stove, and a wood stove. She only has one match. Which does she light up first?
Answer: The match.
- What has no beginning, end or middle?
Answer: A doughnut.
- What can you hear, but cannot touch or see?
Answer: Your voice.