Want a really weird way to break the ice at a party? Try riddles! Or, we suppose you could use these brainteasers to test your friends’ smarts. Or your own if you scroll really really slowly.
From funny riddles to what am I riddles to riddles from movies and video games, here’s plenty for adults — and smart kids — that should be fun to solve. Hey, at least you won’t be bored.
We’ll kick things off with the most famous one: the Riddle of the Sphinx.
81 Riddles for Adults
1. 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).
2. Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?
Answer: They weigh the same.
3. I am not alive, but I can grow. I don’t have lungs, but I need air. I don’t have a mouth, but water kills me.
Answer: Fire
4. The more you take, the more you leave behind.
Answer: Footsteps
5. How much dirt is in a hole that’s two feet by three feet?
Answer: None, it’s a hole.
6. 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
7. I am light as a feather, but not even the strongest man can hold me for much longer than a minute.
Answer: Breath
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 will work even after it has been fired?
Answer: A neuron
10. I am always in front of you, but you can’t see me.
Answer: The future
11. I am a word that starts with “T” ends with “T” and is full of “T.”
Answer: Teapot
12. I am a word that sounds the same when you remove my first letter.
Answer: Empty
13. I am a type of animal, but I am also a type of car.
Answer: A jaguar
14. What gets wet while drying?
Answer: A towel
15. What word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly
16. Some try to hide, some try to cheat; but time will show, we always will meet. Try as you might to guess my name.
Answer: Death
17. What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left hand
18. What word is pronounced the same if you take away four of its five letters?
Answer: Queue
19. 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
20. What can bring back the dead, make you cry, make you laugh, make you young, is born in an instant, yet lasts a lifetime.
Answer: Memory
21. What can you catch, but not throw?
Answer: A cold
22. What is always old and sometimes new, never sad, sometimes blue. Never empty, but sometimes full. Never pushes, always pulls?
Answer: The moon
23. At night they come without being fetched, and by day they are lost without being stolen.
Answer: Stars
24. What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg
25. What can run, but never walks. Has a mouth, but never talks. Has a head, but never weeps. Has a bed, but never sleeps?
Answer: A river
26. What has many teeth, but cannot bite?
Answer: A comb
27. What has lots of eyes, but can’t see?
Answer: A potato
28. What’s nowhere but everywhere, except where something is?
Answer: Nothing.
29. What belongs to you, but others will use it?
Answer: Your name.
30. I can be long, short, grown, bought, painted, left bare, round, or square. What am I?
Answer: Nails
31. What invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer: A window
32. What gets broken without being dropped?
Answer: A promise.
33. What gets harder to catch the faster you run?
Answer: Your breath.
34. What’s strong enough to smash ships but still fears the sun?
Answer: Ice.
35. What has many needles, but doesn’t sew?
Answer: A Christmas tree
36. The more you cut me the bigger I grow. What am I?
Answer: A hole.
37. I have keys but no locks, I have space but no room, you can enter but not go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
38. I’m strong as a rock, but a word can destroy me. What am I?
Answer: Silence.
39. What is always on its way here but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
40. What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin
41. What is the end of everything?
Answer: The letter g
42. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle
43. Without a head, I am higher. What am I?
Answer: A pillow
44. What goes up and down but doesn’t move?
Answer: A staircase
45. People make me, save me, change me, raise me. What am I?
Answer: Money
46. I cannot talk, but I always reply when spoken to. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
47. I like to dance, twist, and prance. I shake my tail as I sail away. I fly high up into the sky. What am I?
Answer: A kite.
48. What goes through cities and fields, but never moves?
Answer: A road
49. What goes in hard, is soft when it comes out, and you have to blow continuously?
Answer: Bubblegum
50. What has one eye, but can’t see?
Answer: A needle
51. What contains 12 hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A deck of cards
52. What starts with an E, ends with an E, but only contains one letter?
Answer: Envelope
53. What joins two people but touches only one?
Answer: A wedding ring
54. Without fingers I point, without arms I strike, without feet I run. What am I?
Answer: A clock.
55. I sit in the corner while traveling around the world. What am I?
Answer: A postage stamp.
56. What kind of coat is always wet when you put it on?
Answer: Paint.
57. What has teeth but cannot eat?
Answer: A comb
58. 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
59. What can go through glass without breaking it?
Answer: Light.
60. I am unpredictable, but you still rely on me. My installments give you the experience of life for free. I offer no refunds, returns, or exchanges. What am I?
Answer: Time
61. What kind of room has no walls, door or windows?
Answer: A mushroom.
62. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano
63. What do you throw away yet keeps returning?
Answer: A boomerang.
64.What goes up, but never comes down?
Answer: Age.
65. To all things and men I appertain and yet by some am shunned and distained. Fondle me and ogle me til you’re insane, but no blow can harm me, cause me pain. Children delight in me, elders take fright. Fair maids rejoice and spin. Cry and I weep, yawn and I sleep. Smile, and I too shall grin. What am I?
Answer: A reflection.
66. I make a loud sound when I’m changing. When I do change, I get bigger but weigh less. What am I?
Answer: Popcorn.
67. I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map
68. I follow you all the time and copy your every move, but you can’t touch me or catch me. What am I?
Answer: Your shadow
69. Which month has 28 days?
Answer: All of them
70. Take off my skin – I won’t cry, but you will! What am I?
Answer: An onion.
71. What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge
72. I am easy to lift, but hard to throw. What am I?
Answer: A feather.
Riddles from Movies
73. What weighs more: all the trains that pass through Grand Central Station in a day, or all the trees cut down in a year to print US currency?
Answer: They weigh the same: nothing. US currency is not printed on paper from trees, and trains go through Grand Central Terminal (not station). (From Inside Man)
74. What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, and yet never grows?
Answer: A mountain (From The Hobbit)
75. Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters. What is it?
Answer: The wind.
76. The legend writ, the stain affected. The key in Silence undetected. Fifty-five in iron pen, Mr. Matlock can’t offend. What am I?
Answer: The Declaration of Independence (From National Treasure)
77. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Answer: African or European? (From Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
78. Tear one off and scratch my head. What once was red is black instead. What am I?
Answer: A match (From Batman Forever)
79. I can start a war or end one. I can give you the strength of heroes or leave you powerless. I might be snared with a glance, but no force can compel me to stay. What am I?
Answer: Love (From Gotham)
80. If you look at the numbers on my face, you won’t find 13 any place.
Answer: A clock (From Batman Forever)
81. I can be cracked. I can be made. I can be told. I can be played. What am I?
Answer: A joke (From Batman Forever)
I've written or worked for a wide range of lifestyle sites and magazines, including Billboard, Nylon, Parade, Men's Journal, Us Weekly, Stuff, Blender, Beachbody, Alternative Press, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and more. See more on my LinkedIn.
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