Welcome to a collection of tricky riddles that love to lead you in the wrong direction. Each one hides its answer in plain sight, so read every word twice before you guess. Take your time, enjoy the misdirection, and see how many you can solve without peeking at the answers.
150 Tricky Riddles Riddles
What is always in front of you but you can never see it?
Answer: The future.
If you take two apples from a pile of three apples, how many apples do you have?
Answer: Two apples.
A farmer has seventeen sheep, and all but nine run away. How many sheep are left?
Answer: Nine sheep.
In a race, you finish right in front of the last runner. What place did you take?
Answer: Second to last.
How can a man go eight days without any sleep?
Answer: He sleeps at night.
What word is always spelled incorrectly, even in a dictionary?
Answer: Incorrectly.
What starts with the letter E, ends with the letter E, and has only one letter in it?
Answer: An envelope.
If a rooster lays an egg on the top of a roof, which way will the egg roll?
Answer: Roosters do not lay eggs.
An electric train is travelling north, and the wind is blowing south. Which way does the smoke blow?
Answer: Electric trains have no smoke.
How many animals did Moses take with him on the ark?
Answer: None, it was Noah.
What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole.
What can you break with just one word?
Answer: A silence.
What can you break just by saying its name?
Answer: Silence.
What is full of holes, lives in the kitchen, and never leaks?
Answer: A colander.
What has one eye but cannot see a thing?
Answer: A needle.
What has a heart that never beats?
Answer: An artichoke.
What goes up and down but never actually moves?
Answer: A staircase.
What has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river.
What has a bank but keeps no money in it?
Answer: A river.
What has many keys but cannot open a single door?
Answer: A keyboard.
What has teeth but cannot bite?
Answer: A zipper.
What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A shirt.
What has four legs but never walks?
Answer: A table.
What has arms but never gives a hug?
Answer: A chair.
What can fill a room without taking up any space?
Answer: A song.
What is always coming but never actually arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
What has a mouth but never speaks?
Answer: A cave.
What travels all around the world but always stays in one corner?
Answer: A stamp.
What do you use to clean that gets dirty itself?
Answer: A sponge.
What can be cracked, made, told, and played, but never eaten?
Answer: A joke.
What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
What begins with T, ends with T, and has T inside it?
Answer: A teapot.
What can you keep even after you give it to someone else?
Answer: Your word.
What goes down in the evening and disappears by morning?
Answer: The sun.
What is yours, but the more you share it, the less of it you have?
Answer: A secret.
What can you catch with your eyes closed?
Answer: Some sleep.
What wears a ring but has no finger and never makes a call?
Answer: A tree trunk.
What runs all the way around a house but never moves?
Answer: A fence.
What do you throw away the outside of and cook the inside of, then eat the outside and throw away the inside?
Answer: Corn on the cob.
What is broken every time it is spoken?
Answer: Silence.
What food has a hole in the middle but is still whole?
Answer: A doughnut.
What can go through glass without breaking it?
Answer: Light.
What is in the middle of nowhere and everywhere at the same time?
Answer: The letter E.
What is in the middle of Paris?
Answer: The letter R.
What is always in front of you but can never be seen?
Answer: The future.
What is always in the middle of the sea?
Answer: The letter E.
What is full of colors and disappears when you get close?
Answer: A rainbow.
What do you call a fish without an eye?
Answer: A fsh.
What do you call a deer with no eyes?
Answer: No idea.
Why was the bicycle tired?
Answer: It was two-tired.
What room can you never enter?
Answer: A mushroom.
What kind of tree can you hold in your hand?
Answer: A palm tree.
What kind of coat can you put on when it rains?
Answer: A coat of paint.
What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: A rubber band.
What kind of cup never holds water?
Answer: A hiccup.
What kind of bow cannot be tied?
Answer: A rainbow.
What has a basement, a kitchen, and a bedroom, but no roof?
Answer: A submarine.
What has pages but never reads?
Answer: A book.
What has leaves but is not a tree?
Answer: A book.
What five-letter word is the longest word in the dictionary?
Answer: Smiles.
What has four letters, sometimes has nine letters, and never has five letters?
Answer: What, sometimes, and never.
If you drop a yellow hat into the Red Sea, what does it become?
Answer: Wet.
What do you throw out when you want to use it, but take in when you do not want to use it?
Answer: An anchor.
What do you put on a table and cut, but never eat?
Answer: A deck of cards.
What is in the middle of a storm but never in the rain?
Answer: The letter O.
What has a sound but no voice, and can shake a whole house?
Answer: Thunder.
What is bought by the yard and worn by the foot?
Answer: A carpet.
What is made of water but will disappear if you put it in water?
Answer: An ice cube.
What runs but never walks?
Answer: Water.
What has a head but never thinks, and a foot but never walks?
Answer: A bed.
What is easy to enter but hard to leave?
Answer: A maze.
What can you hold without touching?
Answer: A conversation.
What goes up when the rain comes down?
Answer: An umbrella.
What can be opened but never closed?
Answer: An egg.
What has no legs but can climb a mountain?
Answer: A road.
What is in the middle of the word “middle”?
Answer: The letter D.
What is in the middle of a jelly?
Answer: The letter L.
What floats in the sky but never flies?
Answer: A cloud.
What follows you everywhere in sunlight but never leaves your side?
Answer: Your shadow.
What comes from a hen but is not a chicken?
Answer: An egg.
What is white on the outside, yellow on the inside, and comes in a shell?
Answer: A hard-boiled egg.
What has a head but no brain, and can be found in a garden?
Answer: A cabbage.
What vegetable always leaks?
Answer: A leek.
What fruit is always sad?
Answer: A blueberry.
What fruit never plays alone?
Answer: A pear.
What do you call a cow with only three legs?
Answer: Lean beef.
What do you call a fish that plays dress-up?
Answer: A fancy fin.
What do you call a bear with no socks?
Answer: Bare-foot.
What do you call a cow with three legs?
Answer: Lean beef.
What do you call a dog that does magic tricks?
Answer: A labracadabrador.
What is a cat’s favourite colour?
Answer: Purrple.
What is a snake’s favourite subject?
Answer: Hiss-tory.
What did the ocean say to the beach?
Answer: Nothing, it just waved.
What did one wall say to the other wall?
Answer: I will meet you at the corner.
What did the left eye say to the right eye?
Answer: Between you and me, something smells.
What did the tomato say to the salad?
Answer: Lettuce be friends.
Why did the cookie get a job?
Answer: It needed the dough.
What do you call a banana that does magic?
Answer: A bananacadabra.
Why did the skeleton go to the party alone?
Answer: It had no body to go with.
What is a skeleton’s favourite instrument?
Answer: A trombone.
What room do ghosts avoid?
Answer: The living room.
What is a ghost’s favourite dessert?
Answer: I-scream.
What do you call a dinosaur that sleeps all day?
Answer: A dino-snore.
What cheese do you use to hide a horse?
Answer: Mascarpone.
What do you call a factory that makes only good products?
Answer: A satisfactory.
What can you hear when you hold a shell to your ear?
Answer: The sea.
What is the hardest key to turn?
Answer: A donkey.
What has a heart in its head?
Answer: A head of lettuce.
What has faces but no eyes, nose, or mouth?
Answer: A die.
What has many eyes but cannot see?
Answer: A potato.
What can you see twice in December, once in June, but never in July?
Answer: The letter E.
I am always hungry, I must always be fed, and the finger I touch will soon turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
What is black and white and red all over?
Answer: A newspaper.
What is the only place where today comes before yesterday?
Answer: A dictionary.
What word has three consecutive double letters?
Answer: Bookkeeper.
What word has all five vowels in order?
Answer: Facetious.
What common English word ends with the letters “mt”?
Answer: Dreamt.
What can you throw but never catch?
Answer: A party.
What is taken from you before you can get it?
Answer: Your photograph.
What goes in dry and comes out wet?
Answer: A tea bag.
What has a face but no eyes?
Answer: A dice.
What animal has a horn but cannot play a tune?
Answer: A rhinoceros.
What has legs but cannot walk, and a back but cannot lie down?
Answer: A chair.
What can be seen in water but never gets wet?
Answer: A reflection.
What is in the middle of a storm?
Answer: The letter O.
What is in the middle of a hurricane?
Answer: The letter I.
What is in the centre of gravity?
Answer: The letter V.
What is in the middle of the earth?
Answer: The letter R.
What starts with E, ends with E, and contains only one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
What letter is in a river but not in a lake?
Answer: The letter V.
What is in the middle of a pie?
Answer: The letter I.
What is in the middle of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter N.
What can you see with your eyes closed?
Answer: A dream.
A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks who it is. The man replies, “Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the photograph?
Answer: His son.
A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the lift down to the ground floor, but on his way back up he only rides to the seventh floor and walks the rest, unless it is raining. Why?
Answer: He is too short to reach the top button.
A woman shoots her husband, holds him underwater for five minutes, and then hangs him. After that, they go out for dinner together. How is this possible?
Answer: She took his photograph and developed it.
A man is found dead hanging from a ceiling, with a puddle of water under his feet and no chair anywhere in the room. What happened?
Answer: He stood on a block of ice.
A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays for three days, and leaves on Friday. How is that possible?
Answer: His horse is named Friday.
A man pushes his car up to a hotel and tells the owner that he is bankrupt. Why?
Answer: He is playing Monopoly.
How can you make seven even without adding or taking away any numbers?
Answer: Remove the letter S from seven.
How can you make the number one disappear?
Answer: Add the letter G to one.
What can you catch but never throw?
Answer: A yawn.
What gets longer as the day goes on?
Answer: A shadow.
What letter is in a car but not in a bus?
Answer: The letter C.
What letter is in a kitchen but not in a bathroom?
Answer: The letter K.
What letter is in a garden but not in a house?
Answer: The letter G.
What letter is in a school but not in a home?
Answer: The letter S.
What letter is in a library but not in a book?
Answer: The letter L.
What do you call a fish that is also a doctor?
Answer: A sturgeon.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a riddle tricky?
A tricky riddle gives you all the clues you need, but it points your brain toward the obvious answer first. The real answer usually comes from reading a word in a different way or noticing a small detail you skipped.
Are tricky riddles good for a game night?
Yes, they are perfect for a game night because they start conversations and arguments in the best way. Read one out loud, give everyone a minute to guess, and then reveal the answer for a good laugh.
What is the best tip for solving a tricky riddle?
Slow down and ask what each word could mean besides the first meaning that comes to mind. If an answer feels too easy, it is probably the trap, so look for the literal or playful meaning instead.
More Riddle Collections
Keep thinking with 150 Easy Riddles for Kids, 150 Hard Riddles, 150 Hard Riddles with Answers.
