Classic Riddles: 60 Famous Riddles with Answers

Ton

“Ton” is a heavy weight, and spelled backward it reads “not.”

Seven

Take away the letter S from “seven” and you get “Even.”

Silence

As soon as you say “silence,” the quiet is gone.

Darkness

The darker it gets, the less you can see.

Two

You took two, so those two are the apples you have.

A bank

A bank has branches in many towns.

One hour

You take the first pill right away, the second after half an hour and the third after one hour.

A fence

A fence surrounds the yard, but it stays still.

They weigh the same

Both weigh one pound. The bricks take up less room, but the weight is equal.

Your name

People say your name much more often than you do.

Second place

You took the second-place spot, and the person you passed is now third.

His son

The man has no brothers, so “my father’s son” is himself. That makes the man in the photo his son.

Once

After the first time, you have 20, so you would be subtracting from a different number.

Pencil lead

The “lead” of a pencil is graphite, which is mined and then put inside the wood.

Stone

Skipping stones is a pond game, and if you take away “st” from “stone,” the word “one” is left.

N

The letters are the first letters of the numbers one, two, three and so on, so the next is “nine.”

Your tongue

You taste with your tongue, and a tongue does not have a smell of its own.

11 seconds

There are five gaps between six strikes, so each gap is one second. Twelve strikes have eleven gaps.

A joke

People crack a joke, make a joke, tell a joke and play a joke on someone.

Five

All four daughters share the same brother, so there are four girls and one boy.

His horse is named Friday

The cowboy arrives on a horse called Friday, and he leaves on the same horse.

There were only three people: a grandfather, his son and his grandson

The middle person is both a father and a son, so three people can be two fathers and two sons.

The letter W

The word “rainbow” ends with the letter W.

Zero

The keypad has a 0 on it, and anything times zero is zero.

A parachute

The man fell from a plane when his parachute did not open.

13

Each number is the sum of the two before it, so 5 plus 8 is 13.

Wrong

Every time you spell the word “wrong,” you spell it “wrong” — the word itself.

A clock

A clock has a round face with two hands that point to the hour and the minutes.

12 chickens and 8 cows

12 chickens have 24 legs and 8 cows have 32 legs, which add up to 56.

Fire

Fire spreads, needs oxygen to burn and goes out when it gets wet.

Turn the first one on for a while, then turn it off. Turn on the second, and go in

If the lamp is on, it is the second switch. If it is off but warm, it is the first. If it is off and cold, it is the third.

A promise

A promise breaks when you do not keep it.

The letter E

June has one E, November has two and May has none.

5 cents

If the ball is 5 cents, the bat is $1.05, and together they cost $1.10.

She was a photographer, and she shot, developed and hung a photo

She took his photo, put it in the developer for five minutes and then hung it up to dry.

Day 8

The snail gains one foot a day, but on the eighth day it climbs from 7 feet to 10 and does not slip back.

He is short and can only reach the 10th-floor button, but on rainy days he has an umbrella

The umbrella lets him press the button for the 20th floor.

5 minutes

Each machine makes one toy in 5 minutes, so 100 machines make 100 toys in the same time.

888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000

888 plus 88 is 976, and the three 8s add 24 to make 1,000.

A keyboard

A keyboard has keys for each letter, and pressing them types words.

An umbrella

You open an umbrella when it starts to rain, so it goes up as the rain comes down.

A map

A map shows cities, mountains and water as drawings, so none of them are real.

An egg

You crack an egg open before you can cook or eat it.

A candle

A candle burns down as time passes, so it is tallest when it is new.

A cold

You can catch a cold from someone who is sick, but it is not something you can toss.

A staircase

A staircase goes up and down between floors, but it stays in the same place.

A coin

A coin has a “heads” side and a “tails” side, and people flip one to make a choice.

A comb

A comb has many teeth, but they only pull through your hair.

A towel

A towel soaks up water from you, so it gets wetter while you get drier.

A river

A river has a mouth where it meets the sea and a bed at the bottom, and its water runs along.

A library

A library is full of books, and each book holds a lot of stories.

A teapot

The word “teapot” begins with T, ends with T, and a teapot is full of tea.

Light

Light spreads across a room, but it has no weight and takes up no room.

A hole

The more dirt you dig out of a hole, the bigger the hole becomes.

A bottle

A bottle has a narrow neck and a cap on top, and you pour liquid out of it.

A sponge

A sponge has lots of tiny holes that soak up water.

A glove

A glove has spots for a thumb and four fingers, but it stays empty until you put your hand inside.

A mushroom

The word “mushroom” has the word “room” in it, but a mushroom is a plant-like fungus with no walls.

A needle

A needle has a small hole at the top, called an eye, which you thread.

Your left hand

Your right hand can hold your left hand, but your left hand can never hold itself.