Need a fun way to stump your friends? This huge collection of 150 riddles has something for everyone — from simple warm-ups to puzzles that might leave even the smartest scratching their heads. Use them for game night, challenge your coworkers at lunch, or text them to friends for a daily brain boost. Each one comes with an answer, but try to solve them on your own first!
Easy Riddles (1–50)
Medium Riddles (51–100)
Hard Riddles (101–150)
Easy Riddles (1–50)
1. What has keys but can’t open locks?
Answer: A piano.
2. What has legs but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A table.
3. What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
4. What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg.
5. What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold.
6. What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
7. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
8. What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge.
9. What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
10. What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
11. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
12. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp.
13. What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
14. I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A candle.
15. What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole.
16. What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain.
17. What’s easy to lift but hard to throw?
Answer: A feather.
18. Where does today come before yesterday?
Answer: In a dictionary.
19. What’s black and white and read all over?
Answer: A newspaper.
20. What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: A rubber band.
21. What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary?
Answer: Incorrectly.
22. What has four fingers and a thumb but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove.
23. What has many teeth but can’t bite?
Answer: A comb.
24. If you drop me I’m sure to crack, but give me a smile and I’ll always smile back. What am I?
Answer: A mirror.
25. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M.
26. I have wings and I can fly, I’m not a bird but I soar high. What am I?
Answer: An airplane.
27. What is as light as a feather but the world’s strongest man can’t hold it for long?
Answer: His breath.
28. What has one head, one foot, and four legs?
Answer: A bed.
29. What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
30. What goes through towns and fields but never moves?
Answer: A road.
31. What runs but never walks?
Answer: Water.
32. What has an eye but can’t see?
Answer: A hurricane.
33. What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: A palm.
34. What do you buy to eat but never eat?
Answer: A plate.
35. What is white when it’s dirty and black when it’s clean?
Answer: A chalkboard.
36. What has cities but no houses, rivers but no water, and forests but no trees?
Answer: A map.
37. What’s always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future.
38. What invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer: A window.
39. I’m always hungry and must be fed. The finger I touch will soon turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
40. What has ears but cannot hear?
Answer: Corn.
41. What can you hold in your left hand but not in your right?
Answer: Your right elbow.
42. What has an end but no beginning, a home but no family, and a space without a room?
Answer: A keyboard.
43. What has 88 keys but can’t open a single door?
Answer: A piano.
44. What is easy to get into but hard to get out of?
Answer: Trouble.
45. I’m lighter than air but a million people can’t lift me. What am I?
Answer: A bubble.
46. What has words but never speaks?
Answer: A book.
47. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence.
48. What is always running but never gets tired?
Answer: A refrigerator.
49. What has feet but no legs?
Answer: A ruler.
50. What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A telephone.
Medium Riddles (51–100)
51. What begins with an E but only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
52. What can be cracked, made, told, and played?
Answer: A joke.
53. What comes once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day?
Answer: The letter E.
54. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine.
55. What starts with a P, ends with an E, and has thousands of letters?
Answer: The post office.
56. What gets bigger the more you take away from it?
Answer: A hole.
57. I’m not alive, but I can grow. I don’t have lungs, but I need air. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
58. What can you hold without ever touching?
Answer: A conversation.
59. What has many keys but can’t open any doors?
Answer: A piano.
60. What has hands and a face but can’t hold anything or smile?
Answer: A clock.
61. What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter W.
62. What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain.
63. What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks?
Answer: A river.
64. What never asks questions but is always answered?
Answer: A doorbell.
65. What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
66. What word of five letters has one left when two are removed?
Answer: Stone (remove S and T, one left).
67. What flies without wings?
Answer: Time.
68. What can be stolen, mistaken, or altered, yet never leaves you?
Answer: Your identity.
69. What goes up and down but doesn’t move?
Answer: A staircase.
70. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M.
71. Which word in the dictionary is always spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly.
72. What kind of coat is always wet when you put it on?
Answer: A coat of paint.
73. What can’t talk but will reply when spoken to?
Answer: An echo.
74. What has four eyes but can’t see?
Answer: Mississippi.
75. What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
Answer: A glove.
76. What has a bottom at the top?
Answer: Your legs.
77. If you don’t keep me, I’ll break. What am I?
Answer: A promise.
78. What begins with T and ends with T and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
79. What has one head, one foot, and four legs?
Answer: A bed.
80. What comes once in a second, once in a minute, but never in a day?
Answer: The letter E.
81. I have branches but no fruit, trunk, or leaves. What am I?
Answer: A bank.
82. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters?
Answer: Short.
83. If you have me, you want to share me. Once you share me, you don’t have me. What am I?
Answer: A secret.
84. What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
85. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
86. What never gets any wetter, no matter how much it rains?
Answer: The sea.
87. What can be heard and caught but never seen?
Answer: A remark or your breath.
88. What is bought by the yard and worn by the foot?
Answer: Carpet.
89. I’m not alive, but I grow; I don’t have lungs, but I need air. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
90. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light.
91. What kind of room has no doors or windows?
Answer: A mushroom.
92. What breaks and never falls, and what falls and never breaks?
Answer: Day breaks and night falls.
93. What comes once in a second, once in a minute, and twice in a millennium?
Answer: The letter M.
94. I have keys but no locks. I have space but no room. You can enter but can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
95. What can you keep after giving to someone?
Answer: Your word.
96. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp.
97. What is easy to get into but hard to get out of?
Answer: Trouble.
98. What question can you never answer yes to?
Answer: Are you asleep yet?
99. What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A telephone.
100. What starts with an “I”, ends with an “E” and only has one letter?
Answer: An envelope..
Hard Riddles (101–150)
101. 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.
102. 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. What am I?
Answer: A candle.
103. I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water. What am I?
Answer: A map.
104. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
105. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence.
106. I’m found in socks, scarves, and mittens. I’m found in the paws of playful kittens. What am I?
Answer: Yarn.
107. What can bring back the dead, make you cry, make you laugh, make you young?
Answer: A memory.
108. 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.
109. A man shaves several times a day but still has a beard. Who is he?
Answer: A barber.
110. What has an eye but cannot see and is stronger than any man?
Answer: A hurricane.
111. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M.
112. What flies without wings and cries without eyes?
Answer: A cloud.
113. The more you take away, the bigger I get. What am I?
Answer: A hole.
114. What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
115. Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it, can neither see nor feel it. What is it?
Answer: A coffin.
116. What starts with “e” and ends with “e” but only has one letter in it?
Answer: An envelope.
117. What flattens all mountains, wipes out all species, destroy every building, and turns everything into pieces?
Answer: Time.
118. I am always hungry and must always be fed. The finger I touch will soon turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
119. What word describes a woman who does not have all her fingers on one hand?
Answer: Normal. (Humans have fingers on both hands.)
120. What English word has three consecutive double letters?
Answer: Bookkeeper.
121. A girl fell off a 50-foot ladder but didn’t get hurt. How?
Answer: She fell off the bottom rung.
122. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth?
Answer: Mount Everest.
123. 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.
124. If you’re running in a race and you pass the person in second place, what place are you in?
Answer: Second place.
125. I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
Answer: Seven.
126. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
127. What can you hold in your left hand but not in your right?
Answer: Your right hand.
128. What comes once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day?
Answer: The letter E.
129. A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and left on Friday. How?
Answer: His horse’s name is Friday.
130. What begins with an “I” and ends with an “E” but only has one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
131. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
132. How many letters are there in the alphabet?
Answer: Eleven — “the alphabet.”
133. What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole.
134. What belongs to you but other people use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
135. A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells its owner he’s bankrupt. Why?
Answer: He’s playing Monopoly.
136. What has four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?
Answer: A human (baby crawls, adult walks, elder with a cane).
137. What can be cracked, made, told, and played?
Answer: A joke.
138. I’m light as a feather, but not even the strongest man can hold me for much longer than a minute. What am I?
Answer: Your breath.
139. What can’t be put in a saucepan?
Answer: Its lid.
140. What invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer: A window.
141. You see me once in June, twice in November, but not at all in May. What am I?
Answer: The letter E.
142. If you have me, you want to share me. Once you share me, you don’t have me. What am I?
Answer: A secret.
143. What runs all around a backyard yet never moves?
Answer: A fence.
144. I go all around the world but always stay in a corner. What am I?
Answer: A stamp.
145. If you throw me out the window, you’ll leave a grieving wife. But leave me in the middle of the door, and you might just save a life. What am I?
Answer: The letter ‘N’. (Window becomes widow, door becomes donor.)
146. I have keys but open no locks. I have space but no room. You can enter, but you can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
147. What breaks but never falls, and what falls but never breaks?
Answer: Day breaks, night falls.
148. What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
149. What has 13 hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A deck of cards.
150. What question can you never truthfully answer yes to?
Answer: Are you asleep?
Congratulations — you’ve just armed yourself with 150 easy, medium, and hard riddles to stump your friends, challenge your family, or test yourself any day of the week. Bookmark this list, share it at parties, and check out more quizzes and riddles at quizandriddles.com. There’s always another brain teaser waiting for you!
