If you’ve progressed beyond questions about why the chicken crossed the road, then these hard riddles are for you. They’re a great way to break the ice with new friends, or slightly torment old friends.
Especially Sam, who won’t let you live down the fact that you didn’t know the capital of Minnesota that one time.
These brain teasers include “who am I riddles,” tricky number questions, language queries, and of course the classic Riddle of the Sphinx. Great for adults and really smart kids alike, they’ll challenge your noodle and may be slightly infuriating, but luckily we’ve included the answers to all of them. Whether or not you share the answers with your friends is totally up to you.
43 Hard Riddles (With Answers)
1. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
2. The more you take, the more you leave behind.
Answer: Footsteps
3. You measure my life in hours and I serve you by expiring. I’m quick when I’m thin and slow when I’m fat. The wind is my enemy.
Answer: A candle.
4. I am taken from a mine, and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost every person.
Answer: Pencil lead
5. You see a boat filled with people. It has not sunk, but when you look again you don’t see a single person on the boat. Why?
Answer: All the people were married.
6. Which creature walks on four legs in the morning two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening?
Answer: Man walks on 4 legs in the morning (crawling as a baby), 2 legs in the afternoon (walking upright throughout most of life), and 3 legs in the evening (using a cane in old age).
7. I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
8. I am not alive, but I can die. I don’t have wings, but I can fly. I don’t have eyes, but I can see.
Answer: A storm
9. What word in the English language does the following: the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great, while the entire world signifies a great woman. What is the word?
Answer: Heroine
10. Never resting, never still, moving silently from hill to hill. It does not walk, run or trot. All is cool where it is not.
Answer: The sun
11. A woman shoots her husband, then holds him underwater for five minutes. Next, she hangs him. Right after, they enjoy a lovely dinner. Explain.
Answer: She took a picture of him and developed it in her darkroom. Don’t forget to bookmark these free printable brain teasers that really bust your brain.
12. What can you catch, but not throw?
Answer: A cold
13. 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.
14. What has many teeth, but cannot bite?
Answer: A comb
15. What has lots of eyes, but can’t see?
Answer: A potato
16. What disappears as soon as you say its name?
Answer: Silence
17. The more you cut me the bigger I grow. What am I?
Answer: A hole.
18. This belongs to you, but everyone else uses it.
Answer: Your name.
19. What is always on its way here but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
20. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M.”
21. What is there one of in every corner and two of in every room?
Answer: The letter O.
22. What starts with an E, ends with an E, but only contains one letter?
Answer: Envelope
23.A barrel of water weighed 60 pounds. Someone put something in it and now it weighs 40 pounds. What did the person add?
Answer: A hole.
24. 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
25. What grows up while growing down?
Answer: A goose or duck.
26. What connects two people, but touches only one?
Answer: A wedding ring
27. Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters. What is it?
Answer: The wind.
28. What has a neck but no head, two arms, and no hands?
Answer: A shirt.
29. Who can finish a book without finishing a sentence?
Answer: A prisoner.
30. I am easy to lift, but hard to throw. What am I?
Answer: A feather.
31. How can the number four be half of five?
Answer: IV, the Roman numeral for four, is half (two letters) of the word five.
32.What goes up, but never comes down?
Answer: Age.
33. What kind of room has no walls, door or windows?
Answer: A mushroom.
34. What is able to go up a chimney when down but unable to go down a chimney when up?
Answer: An umbrella.
35. Without fingers I point, without arms I strike, without feet I run. What am I?
Answer: A clock.
36. David’s father has three sons: Snap, Crackle, and _____?
Answer: David.
37. Without a bridle or a saddle, across a thing I ride a-straddle. And those I ride, by help of me, though almost blind, are made to see. What am I?
Answer: Eyeglasses.
38. My thunder comes before the lightning. My lightning comes before the clouds. My rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?
Answer: A volcano.
39. What is more useful when it is broken?
Answer: An egg.
40. You’re in a dark room with a candle, a wood stove, and a gas lamp. You only have one match, so what do you light first?
Answer: The match.
41. 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.
42. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle
43. How much dirt is in a hole that measures four feet by four feet by five feet?
Answer: None.
When not sitting behind a computer writing and editing, she’s an avid runner and yogi with an RYT 200 certification. Follow her on Instagram @hannah_rex and LinkedIn.
- 55 Opening Lines to Use On Bumble When “Hey” Just Isn’t Cutting It - August 1, 2023
- Celebrate The End Of Summer With These August Nail Design Ideas (And A Beach Day) - July 26, 2023
- Where to Get the Oversized Skeleton Pillow Everyone’s Obsessed With On TikTok (Plus Some Similar Finds) - July 25, 2023
Leave a Comment