If you love to twist your mind in knots or stump your friends and family, you’re in the right place. These 100 tough riddles cover every level, from easy warm-ups to brain-melting stumpers. Perfect for family game nights, school quizzes, or just to challenge yourself on a quiet afternoon. Try to solve each one before checking the answer — you’ll feel extra proud when you crack the tricky ones on your own!
Easy Riddles to Get Started (1–10)
1. I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A candle.
2. What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg.
3. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
4. What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
5. What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
6. I’m always in front of you but can’t be seen. What am I?
Answer: The future.
7. What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
8. What can you catch but never throw?
Answer: A cold.
9. What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
10. What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge.
Classic Riddles Everyone Should Know (11–20)
11. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp.
12. What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole.
13. What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: A rubber band.
14. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
15. What has an eye but cannot see?
Answer: A hurricane.
16. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
17. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M.
18. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light.
19. What runs but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river.
20. What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary?
Answer: Incorrectly.
Wordplay and Lateral Thinking Riddles (21–30)
21. Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I?
Answer: The word “ton.”
22. What comes once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day?
Answer: The letter E.
23. Which word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
24. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
25. What word starts and ends with an E but only has one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
26. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future.
27. What English word has three consecutive double letters?
Answer: Bookkeeper.
28. If you’re running in a race and you pass the person in second place, what place are you in?
Answer: Second.
29. What has four fingers and a thumb but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove.
30. What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
Tricky Logic Riddles (31–40)
31. A man who was outside in the rain without an umbrella or hat didn’t get a single hair on his head wet. Why?
Answer: He was bald.
32. What occurs once in every minute, twice in every moment, yet never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M.
33. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine.
34. What can you hold in your left hand but never in your right hand?
Answer: Your right elbow.
35. If you have me, you want to share me. Once you share me, you don’t have me. What am I?
Answer: A secret.
36. I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water. What am I?
Answer: A map.
37. You see me once in June, twice in November, but not at all in May. What am I?
Answer: The letter E.
38. What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain.
39. A cowboy rode into town on Friday. He stayed in town for three days and rode out on Friday. How is that possible?
Answer: His horse’s name is Friday.
40. What has many teeth but can’t bite?
Answer: A comb.
Funny Riddles That Will Make You Smile (41–50)
41. Why did the man run around his bed?
Answer: To catch up on his sleep.
42. What has one head, one foot, and four legs?
Answer: A bed.
43. What has words but never speaks?
Answer: A book.
44. Why can’t your nose be 12 inches long?
Answer: Because then it would be a foot.
45. What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
46. What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: A palm.
47. What is orange and sounds like a parrot?
Answer: A carrot.
48. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants?
Answer: In case he got a hole in one.
49. Why did the kid throw his clock out the window?
Answer: He wanted to see time fly.
50. What did one wall say to the other wall?
Answer: I’ll meet you at the corner.
Riddles for Kids to Try on Adults (51–60)
51. What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A clock.
52. What can you hear but not see or touch?
Answer: Your voice.
53. Where does today come before yesterday?
Answer: In a dictionary.
54. What has legs but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A table.
55. What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck.
56. What question can you never answer yes to?
Answer: Are you asleep yet?
57. What begins with an E and only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
58. What kind of cup can’t hold water?
Answer: A cupcake.
59. What invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer: A window.
60. What gets bigger and bigger the more you take away from it?
Answer: A hole.
Riddles for Adults to Stump Each Other (61–70)
61. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
62. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a century?
Answer: The letter M.
63. 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.
64. 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.
65. What disappears as soon as you say its name?
Answer: Silence.
66. I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?
Answer: A bank.
67. 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.
68. What begins with an “I” and ends with an “E” but only has one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
69. If I drink, I die. If I eat, I’m fine. What am I?
Answer: A fire.
70. David’s father has three sons: Snap, Crackle, and ?
Answer: David.
Brain Teasers and Math Riddles (71–80)
71. I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
Answer: Seven.
72. Which weighs more: a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?
Answer: Neither. They both weigh a pound.
73. If there are three apples and you take away two, how many do you have?
Answer: Two — because you took them.
74. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine.
75. How can you add eight 8s to get the number 1,000?
Answer: 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000.
76. Using only addition, add eight 8s to make 1,000.
Answer: Same as above — 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8.
77. If you multiply this number by any other number, the answer will always be the same. What number is it?
Answer: Zero.
78. How many times can you subtract 10 from 100?
Answer: Once — after that, you’re subtracting from 90.
79. How many months have 28 days?
Answer: All of them.
80. If you have a bowl with six apples and you take away four, how many do you have?
Answer: Four — you took them.
Long Story Riddles (81–90)
81. A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he’s bankrupt. Why?
Answer: He’s playing Monopoly.
82. A woman shoots her husband, then holds him underwater for five minutes. Next, she hangs him. Right after, they enjoy a lovely dinner. How?
Answer: She took a photo of him and developed it.
83. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms: one full of raging fires, one full of assassins with loaded guns, and one full of lions who haven’t eaten in three years. Which should he choose?
Answer: The lions — they’d be dead.
84. How can a man go eight days without sleep?
Answer: He sleeps at night.
85. A truck driver is going down a one-way street the wrong way, and passes at least ten cops. Why is he not caught?
Answer: He was walking.
86. A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. He calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or boat. How?
Answer: The river was frozen.
87. A man is found dead in a room with 53 bicycles. What happened?
Answer: He was cheating at cards — “bicycle” is a playing card brand.
88. A girl fell off a 50-foot ladder but didn’t get hurt. How?
Answer: She fell off the bottom rung.
89. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth?
Answer: Mount Everest.
90. A man is wearing all black. Black shoes, socks, pants, shirt, gloves, and a ski mask. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming toward him with its lights off, but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?
Answer: It was daytime.
Almost Impossible Riddles (91–100)
91. 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.
92. 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. What am I?
Answer: A candle.
93. I have no doors but I have keys. I have space but no room. You can enter but can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
94. I have lakes with no water, mountains with no stone, and cities with no buildings. What am I?
Answer: A map.
95. 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.
96. What can bring back the dead, make us cry, make us laugh, make us young? It is born in an instant, yet lasts a lifetime.
Answer: A memory.
97. I turn once, what is out will not get in. I turn again, what is in will not get out. What am I?
Answer: A key.
98. I am always hungry, I must always be fed. The finger I touch will soon turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
99. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence.
100. I have no eyes, no legs, no ears, and I help move the earth. What am I?
Answer: An earthworm.
Congratulations if you made it through all 100! Whether you guessed them on your own or needed a little peek at the answers, you’ve given your brain a real workout. Save your favorites to stump friends, family, or co-workers. And don’t forget to check out more quizzes, puzzles, and trivia challenges here on quizandriddles.com — there’s always another riddle waiting to bend your mind!
