Riddles with answers

What kinds of riddles are here?

With a riddle you work out the answer yourself from what is written. Some turn on a word that can stand for something else, some on a sum that sounds different from what it is, and some on an event where you have to work out the missing step. This list has all three. The riddles were written for this page. A few classic folk riddles, such as the one about the clock with hands that cannot clap, appear in our own wording.

Three levels

The twenty easy riddles are about things around the house and about words: a comb, a candle, a needle. You will usually have the answer within half a minute. The twenty medium riddles contain a trick question or a small sum. Read them twice, because the answer often hides in a word you skip at first, such as ‘but’ or ‘each’. The twenty hard riddles take a handful of steps: ropes that burn unevenly, a bridge in the dark with one torch, jugs you have to pour back and forth. For that last kind it pays to draw it out or keep a list on paper.

How to use the hint and the answer

Try on your own first. If you are stuck, show the hint: it points in a direction and never gives the answer away. Only then show the answer. For a few hard riddles the answer also shows how to get there. Then mark whether you had it right. The count at the bottom only counts what you mark yourself, so you can use it the way you like: for yourself, for a small contest at the table or for a class that guesses in turns.

Riddles to read aloud

The easy riddles are made for reading aloud, in the car, while waiting or at the dinner table. Let everyone name an answer first and show it afterwards. Children often like the trick questions best, because they see the solution as soon as you name the word it turns on. For a group of mixed ages it works to start with easy and move on to the medium riddles.

What Skillido keeps

Only the number of riddles you marked as solved, and only in your own browser. The riddle you are looking at is not saved: close the page and you start at the first one next time. There is no account and we do not count who guesses what.

More to play

If you like puzzles with words, try the word search or the spelling test. Prefer numbers? Play a round of sudoku. The whole range of games is on the brain games page.