Brain teasers and riddles were once marketed as easy ways to boost intelligence. The truth is, playing sudoku or solving a crossword won’t make you any smarter, but they are good mental exercises and do encourage a different type of thinking. More importantly, they’re fun.
Challenge yourself and your family with these 50 hard riddles. They’re tough, but they get easier with practice and they make family dinners so much more amusing. Who’s up for a little friendly competition?
What starts with T, ends with T and has T in it?
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Answer: A teapot
One word in the English language does the following: the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great person, while the entire word signifies a great woman. What is the word?
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Answer: Heroine
What’s harder than steel but can’t handle a hot day?
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Answer: Ice
What can a monkey make that no other animal can?
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Answer: A baby monkey
A man and his boss have the same parents, but are not siblings. How?
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Answer: The man is self-employed.
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
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Answer: Footsteps
What always ends everything?
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Answer: The letter G
What do you bury when it’s alive and dig up when it’s dead?
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Answer: A plant
What can’t be used unless it’s broken?
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Answer: An egg
My rings are not of gold, but I get more as I get old. What am I?
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Answer: A tree
I drive men mad for love of me, easily beaten, never free.
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Answer: Gold
Name one thing no one wants, but everyone hates to lose?
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Answer: A lawsuit
What can you easily make, but can never see?
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Answer: Noise
What has five fingers but can’t pick anything up?
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Answer: A glove
What can you hold in your right hand but never in your left hand?
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Answer: Your left hand
A bucket of water weighed 20 pounds. Someone put something inside and now it only weighs 15 pounds. What did the person add?
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Answer: A hole
What has one eye but can’t see?
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Answer: A needle
What’s light as a feather, but even an athlete can’t hold it for long?
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Answer: Breath
I can be written, I can be spoken, I can be exposed, I can be broken. What am I?
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Answer: News
I have many holes but I’m as strong as steel. What am I?
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Answer: A metal chain
Take one out and scratch my head I am now black but once was red. What am I?
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Answer: A match
A woman shoots her husband, then holds him underwater for five minutes. Next, she hangs him. Right after, they enjoy a lovely dinner. Explain.
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Answer: She took a picture of him, developed the photo and hung it up on the wall.
I am something people celebrate or resist. I change people’s thoughts and lives. I am obvious to some people, but to others, I am a mystery. What am I?
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Answer: Age
What word in the English language uses all five vowels plus Y in alphabetical order, and uses each only once?
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Answer: Facetiously
Name someone who has married dozens of women, but was never married?
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Answer: A priest
What has a heart that never beats?
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Answer: An artichoke
Forward I am heavy, backward I am not. What am I?
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Answer: The word “ton”
What word has kst in the middle, in the beginning, and at the end?
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Answer: The word “inkstand”
I have five keys, but no locks. I have a space, but no room. You can enter, but can’t go inside. What am I?
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Answer: A keyboard
What belongs to you, but everyone else uses it more?
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Answer: Your name
Nobody has ever walked this way. Which way is it?
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Answer: The Milky Way
Where there is light is the only place I can live. Yet if light shines on me I die. What am I?
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Answer: A shadow
Give me food, and I will live. Give me water, and I will die. What am I?
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Answer: Fire
What has teeth, but can’t eat?
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Answer: A comb
What is it that given one, you’ll have either two or none?
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Answer: A choice
What tastes better than it smells?
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Answer: A tongue
What has a neck but no head, two arms, and no hands?
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Answer: A shirt
You measure my life in hours and I serve you by expiring. I need air to live, but I hate the wind.
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Answer: A candle
What connects two people, but touches only one?
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Answer: A wedding ring
What is seen in the middle of March and April that can’t be seen at the beginning or end of either month?
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Answer: The letter R
I speak without a mouth, and I hear without ears. I’m invisible, but you can call for me. What am I?
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Answer: An echo
Imagine the color of snow. Then the color of clouds. Then the color of a blank canvas. Now answer this question: What do cows drink?
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Answer: Water. This one forces your brain to escape the established pattern to find the logical answer. Most people respond “milk” at first.
How many letters are in the alphabet?
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Answer: There are eleven letters in “the alphabet.”
What grows up while growing down?
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Answer: A goose (down feathers)
You bought me for dinner but you can’t eat me. What am I?
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Answer: A fork
What word is always spelled incorrectly in the dictionary?
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Answer: “Incorrectly”
What goes through glass without breaking it?
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Answer: Light
What is able to go up a chimney when down but unable to go down a chimney when up?
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Answer: An umbrella. When the umbrella is up, it won’t fit.
What has 10 letters and starts with gas?
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Answer: An automobile
How can you stand behind your friend while they are standing behind you?
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Answer: Just stand back to back.