Welcome to a collection of tricky riddles that love to lead you down the wrong path before the answer clicks into place. Each one is a little puzzle of wordplay, misdirection, or a familiar object seen in a strange new light. Take your time, guess out loud, and enjoy that satisfying moment when the answer suddenly makes perfect sense.
150 Tricky Riddles with Answers Riddles
I am always ahead of you, but you can never catch up with me. What am I?
Answer: The future.
I am not alive, but I grow. I do not have lungs, but I need air. I do not have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
I follow you all day long, but I vanish when the lights go out. What am I?
Answer: A shadow.
What five-letter word sounds the same when you take away four of its letters?
Answer: Queue.
What word reads the same forwards, backwards, and upside down?
Answer: NOON.
What has teeth but never bites?
Answer: A zipper.
What wears a ring but has no finger?
Answer: A telephone.
What has a bed but never sleeps, a mouth but never eats, and always runs?
Answer: A river.
What can your right hand hold that your left hand never can?
Answer: Your left elbow.
What can you break simply by saying its name?
Answer: Silence.
What is full of holes and catches fish?
Answer: A net.
What gets smaller the more you use it?
Answer: A bar of soap.
What gets shorter the more you use it?
Answer: A pencil.
What has many keys but opens nothing?
Answer: A computer keyboard.
What has a face but never smiles?
Answer: A playing card.
What do you call a snake with a government job?
Answer: A civil serpent.
What is always ahead of you, yet you can never reach it?
Answer: Tomorrow.
What has a spine but no bones, and leaves but no branches?
Answer: A book.
What has a trunk but no elephant, and leaves all the time but is not a tree?
Answer: A car.
What has a needle but never sews?
Answer: A compass.
What has a tail but is not an animal?
Answer: A kite.
What flies without wings and cries without eyes?
Answer: A cloud.
What has wings but never flies?
Answer: A penguin.
What gets whiter the dirtier it gets?
Answer: A chalkboard.
What is always in front of you, yet you can never touch it?
Answer: The future.
What travels the whole world but always stays in one corner?
Answer: A stamp.
What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
What has an eye but cannot see?
Answer: A needle.
What wears a cap but has no head?
Answer: A mushroom.
What has a stem but is not a plant?
Answer: A wine glass.
What has a head but never thinks?
Answer: A nail.
What is in the middle of the ocean but stays dry?
Answer: The letter C.
What is at the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, and the start of every end?
Answer: The letter E.
What word is always pronounced wrong?
Answer: Wrong.
What has a tongue but cannot taste?
Answer: A shoe.
What has a sole but is not a fish?
Answer: A shoe.
What is always in front of you but you never see it?
Answer: Your nose.
What do you buy to eat with, but never eat?
Answer: A plate.
What is cut on a table but never eaten?
Answer: A deck of cards.
What has four legs but cannot walk?
Answer: A table.
What has a back but no body?
Answer: A chair.
What is covered in needles, never sews a stitch, and stays green all winter?
Answer: A pine tree.
What has branches but no leaves?
Answer: A bank.
What has a back but no front?
Answer: A chair.
What has a current but never gets shocked?
Answer: A river.
What can you make with your mind alone?
Answer: A decision.
What has no start and no finish, but you can wear it on your finger?
Answer: A ring.
What is round and has a hole in the middle?
Answer: A donut.
What do you throw out when you want to use it, and take in when you do not want it?
Answer: An anchor.
What do you break before you use it?
Answer: An egg.
What has hearts but never beats, and faces but never smiles?
Answer: A deck of cards.
What falls without ever getting hurt?
Answer: Snow.
What vegetable has a heart but no heartbeat?
Answer: An artichoke.
What has a foot but cannot walk?
Answer: A snail.
What has a shell but never goes to the beach?
Answer: An egg.
What wears black and white stripes but is not an animal?
Answer: A referee.
What goes through towns and over hills but never moves?
Answer: A road.
What can you hear but never see or touch?
Answer: Music.
What is always in front of a car but never behind it?
Answer: The headlights.
What has a horn but never plays a tune?
Answer: A rhinoceros.
What has stripes but is not a road?
Answer: A zebra.
What is orange and sounds like a parrot?
Answer: A carrot.
What do you get if you cross a fish and an elephant?
Answer: Swimming trunks.
What kind of dog never barks, never bites, but still guards the dinner table?
Answer: A hot dog.
What do you call a duck that takes things that are not his?
Answer: A robber duck.
What do you call a cow that plays music?
Answer: A moo-sician.
What do you call a can opener that does not work?
Answer: A can’t opener.
What is a tree’s favourite drink?
Answer: Root beer.
What do cows read in the morning?
Answer: The moos-paper.
What has a mouth but never eats or speaks?
Answer: A cave.
What has a tongue but never talks?
Answer: A bell.
What five-letter word has a mile in it?
Answer: Smiles.
What weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?
Answer: They weigh the same.
A plane crashes on the border of two countries. Where do they bury the survivors?
Answer: They do not bury the survivors, because they are alive.
What has a motor, hums all day, and keeps things cold without ever moving?
Answer: A refrigerator.
A man lives on the tenth floor, but every day he takes the lift to the seventh floor and walks the rest of the way up. Why?
Answer: He is too short to reach the tenth-floor button.
What city is three-sevenths chicken, two-thirds cat, and half a goat?
Answer: Chicago.
What is half of two plus two?
Answer: Two.
What number comes next in this sequence: 1, 11, 21, 1211?
Answer: 111221.
What has no wings but can fly, no eyes but can cry, and no feet but can run?
Answer: A cloud.
What can you see in a lake but never touch?
Answer: A reflection.
If you have three apples and you take two, how many do you have?
Answer: Two.
A farmer has 17 sheep, and all but nine die. How many sheep are left?
Answer: Nine.
What has four legs, a flat top, and never moves?
Answer: A table.
What has lids but never holds jam?
Answer: Your eyes.
What blinks but never sees?
Answer: A traffic light.
What has a light but is not a lamp?
Answer: A firefly.
What carries its house wherever it goes?
Answer: A snail.
What is always behind you, but you never see it?
Answer: Your past.
What can you open but never close again?
Answer: An egg.
What is the only place where yesterday always follows today?
Answer: A dictionary.
What has pages but is not a book?
Answer: A newspaper.
What has a spine, pages, and a cover, but is not alive?
Answer: A book.
What key can you press but never turn?
Answer: A keyboard key.
What key will not open any lock?
Answer: A monkey.
What has strings but is not a guitar?
Answer: A puppet.
What wears a bow but never shoots an arrow?
Answer: A present.
What is wrapped but is not a present?
Answer: A mummy.
What has arms but no hands?
Answer: A chair.
What has legs but never walks?
Answer: A pair of trousers.
What has a waist but never wears a belt?
Answer: An hourglass.
What can you catch but never hold for long?
Answer: A snowflake.
What melts in the sun but is not ice?
Answer: A snowman.
What wears a crown but never rules?
Answer: A tooth.
What sits in the middle of the world?
Answer: The letter O.
What is at the end of the earth?
Answer: The letter H.
What is the centre of gravity?
Answer: The letter V.
What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space?
Answer: The letter E.
What is the beginning of the end?
Answer: The letter E.
What has a head, a foot, and four legs?
Answer: A bed.
What kind of horse never sleeps and only comes out at night?
Answer: A nightmare.
How do fish stay in touch with each other?
Answer: They use a shell phone.
What do you call a snowman in the summer?
Answer: A puddle.
What kind of room has no walls, no floor, and no roof?
Answer: A chat room.
What has a door but is not a house?
Answer: A car.
What has windows but is not a building?
Answer: A computer.
What has a neck, a body, and strings, but is not a person?
Answer: A guitar.
What is full of stars but never sees the night sky?
Answer: A flag.
What has rings but never wears jewellery?
Answer: A tree.
What has a bark but no dog?
Answer: A tree.
What has a trunk but is not an elephant?
Answer: A tree.
What waves but has no water?
Answer: A flag.
What can you make, break, tell, and play, but never eat?
Answer: A joke.
What can be broken, made, and kept, but never seen?
Answer: A promise.
What has a beat but no heart?
Answer: A drum.
What has a skin but is not an animal?
Answer: A banana.
What has a point but never argues?
Answer: A pencil.
What has an eraser but never makes a mistake?
Answer: A pencil.
What can you draw without a pencil or paper?
Answer: A conclusion.
What has a frame but is not a picture?
Answer: A window.
What has a spout but never pours tea?
Answer: A watering can.
What has blades but never cuts?
Answer: A ceiling fan.
What has a cold inside but is not sick?
Answer: A refrigerator.
What has a door but keeps things cold?
Answer: A refrigerator.
What lights up when you open it but is not a lamp?
Answer: A refrigerator.
What has shelves but is not a shop?
Answer: A library.
What has a cover and pages but is not a book?
Answer: A magazine.
What has pages but no paper?
Answer: A website.
What has a mouse but is not an animal?
Answer: A computer.
What has a memory but cannot remember anything?
Answer: A computer.
What has a screen but never shows a film?
Answer: A phone.
What has buttons but never wears a shirt?
Answer: A remote control.
What has a channel but is not a river?
Answer: A television.
What has a remote but is not far away?
Answer: A television.
What has volume but is not a book?
Answer: A television.
What needs a plug but has no bath?
Answer: A toaster.
What pops up when it is ready?
Answer: A toaster.
What has slices but is not a pizza?
Answer: A loaf of bread.
What is brown on the outside, white on the inside, and comes from a tree?
Answer: A coconut.
What has milk but is not a cow?
Answer: A coconut.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the answers included with every riddle?
Yes, every riddle on this page comes with its answer, so you can check your guess right away or use the riddles for a quiz without hunting for the solutions.
Are these tricky riddles good for game night or parties?
Yes, they work well for game nights, parties, and family gatherings. Read them out loud, split into teams, and keep score to see who solves the most.
What is the best way to solve a tricky riddle?
Read each riddle literally and look for words with double meanings. Think about everyday objects in a new way, and do not be afraid to guess something silly, because the answer is often simpler than it first seems.
More Riddle Collections
Keep thinking with 150 Easy Riddles for Kids, 150 Hard Riddles, 150 Hard Riddles with Answers.
