If you are looking for the best collection of classic riddles?

Here are 120 best classic Riddles to tease your brain, each with a clear answer and a brief explanation. Challenge yourself, stump your friends, or just enjoy your time!

120 Best Classic Riddles

1. What has keys but can’t open locks?
Answer: Piano
Explanation: Piano keys are for playing music, not unlocking anything.


2. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
Answer: Footsteps
Explanation: Every step you take, you leave a footprint.


3. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M”
Explanation: Count the letter “M” in those words.


4. What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: Towel
Explanation: Towels absorb water as they dry things.


5. I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: Candle
Explanation: Candles shrink as they burn.


6. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: Stamp
Explanation: Stamps stick to envelopes as they travel.


7. What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: Clock
Explanation: Clock hands point to the time.


8. What has a head, a tail, but no body?
Answer: Coin
Explanation: Coins have a head and tail side.


9. What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: Sponge
Explanation: Holes allow it to absorb water.


10. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age
Explanation: You only get older.


11. What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold
Explanation: You “catch” a cold (get sick).


12. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future
Explanation: You can never see the future.


13. What belongs to you, but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name
Explanation: Others say your name more often.


14. What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole
Explanation: Removing material makes a hole larger.


15. What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle
Explanation: The “eye” is the hole for thread.


16. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: Bottle
Explanation: Bottles have necks but no heads.


17. What is always running but never gets tired?
Answer: Water (or a river)
Explanation: Rivers run but never rest.


18. What has an endless supply of letters but starts empty?
Answer: Mailbox
Explanation: Mailboxes hold letters.


19. What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary?
Answer: Incorrectly
Explanation: The actual word “incorrectly” is spelled that way.


20. What goes up and down but doesn’t move?
Answer: Staircase
Explanation: People move on stairs, not the stairs themselves.


21. I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: Map
Explanation: Maps show these things but aren’t real.


22. What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: Rubber band
Explanation: It stretches, not plays tunes.


23. What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise
Explanation: Promises are “broken” without touching.


24. Where does today come before yesterday?
Answer: Dictionary
Explanation: Words are ordered alphabetically.


25. What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
Answer: Glove
Explanation: Gloves are shaped like hands.


26. What can’t be put in a saucepan?
Answer: Its lid
Explanation: The lid sits on top, not inside.


27. What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it?
Answer: Teapot
Explanation: Starts and ends with “T” and holds “tea.”


28. What kind of room has no doors or windows?
Answer: Mushroom
Explanation: “Room” is in the name, but it’s a fungus.


29. What has one head, one foot, and four legs?
Answer: Bed
Explanation: Beds have a headboard, footboard, and legs.


30. What has many teeth, but can’t bite?
Answer: Comb
Explanation: Combs have teeth for hair.

31. What has words but never speaks?
Answer: Book
Explanation: Books are full of words.


32. What is easy to lift but hard to throw?
Answer: Feather
Explanation: Feathers are light but don’t travel far if thrown.


33. What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: Palm
Explanation: “Palm” is both a tree and part of your hand.


34. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light
Explanation: Light fills rooms but isn’t physical.


35. What is black when it’s clean and white when it’s dirty?
Answer: Chalkboard
Explanation: Chalk makes a clean board white.


36. What invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer: Window
Explanation: Windows let you see through walls.


37. What gets smaller every time you take a bath?
Answer: Soap
Explanation: Soap dissolves as you use it.


38. What goes through cities and fields, but never moves?
Answer: Road
Explanation: Roads connect places but don’t move.


39. What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: Telephone
Explanation: Phones “ring,” but don’t have fingers.


40. What never asks a question but gets answered all the time?
Answer: Telephone
Explanation: Phones are answered, but don’t ask.


41. What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: Garbage truck
Explanation: “Flies” refers to insects around trash.


42. What has a bed but doesn’t sleep, and a mouth but never eats?
Answer: River
Explanation: Rivers have a “bed” and a “mouth.”


43. What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain
Explanation: Rain falls, never rises.


44. What kind of coat can only be put on when wet?
Answer: Coat of paint
Explanation: Paint is applied while wet.


45. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence
Explanation: Saying anything breaks silence.


46. What can you hold in your left hand, but never in your right?
Answer: Your right hand
Explanation: You can’t hold your right hand with itself.


47. What begins with an E, ends with an E, but only contains one letter?
Answer: Envelope
Explanation: Envelopes hold a “letter.”


48. What comes once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day?
Answer: The letter “E”
Explanation: Count the E’s in each word.


49. What runs, but never walks?
Answer: Water (or a river)
Explanation: Rivers “run,” not walk.


50. What is always answered, but never asks a question?
Answer: Telephone
Explanation: Phones are answered, not inquisitive.


51. What has a heart that doesn’t beat?
Answer: Artichoke
Explanation: The center is called a “heart.”


52. What can be cracked, made, told, and played?
Answer: Joke
Explanation: You can crack, make, tell, or play a joke.


53. What has keys but can’t open locks?
Answer: Keyboard
Explanation: Keyboard keys type, not unlock.


54. What kind of cup can’t hold water?
Answer: Cupcake
Explanation: A cake, not a cup.


55. What comes before thunder?
Answer: Lightning
Explanation: Lightning flashes, then thunder sounds.


56. What never gets any wetter, no matter how much it rains?
Answer: The sea
Explanation: The sea is already wet.


57. What kind of ship has two mates but no captain?
Answer: Relationship
Explanation: Two people are “mates” in a relationship.


58. What is cut on a table but is never eaten?
Answer: Deck of cards
Explanation: You “cut” cards while playing.


59. What is made of water, but if you put it in water it will die?
Answer: Ice cube
Explanation: Ice cubes melt in water.


60. What has legs, but doesn’t walk?
Answer: Table
Explanation: Tables have legs but don’t move.

61. What begins with P, ends with E, and has thousands of letters?
Answer: Post office
Explanation: Handles mail (letters).


62. What is as light as a feather, yet the strongest person can’t hold it for long?
Answer: Your breath
Explanation: You can’t hold your breath forever.


63. What can you keep after giving it to someone?
Answer: Your word
Explanation: You keep your promise even after giving it.


64. What belongs to you, but everyone else uses it?
Answer: Your name
Explanation: Others say it more than you do.


65. What gets sharper the more you use it?
Answer: Your brain (or mind)
Explanation: Practice and learning keep your mind sharp.


66. What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: Headband
Explanation: Worn on your head, not a music group.


67. What has a spine, but no bones?
Answer: Book
Explanation: The book’s spine holds its pages.


68. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short
Explanation: Add “-er” and you get “shorter.”


69. What is orange and sounds like a parrot?
Answer: Carrot
Explanation: “Carrot” rhymes with “parrot.”


70. What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold
Explanation: “Catch a cold” means to get sick.


71. What has a bottom at the top?
Answer: Your legs
Explanation: The bottom (your butt) is at the top of your legs.


72. What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow
Explanation: When tomorrow comes, it’s today.


73. What can’t talk but will reply when spoken to?
Answer: Echo
Explanation: Echoes repeat what you say.


74. What do you buy to eat but never eat?
Answer: Plate
Explanation: You eat from it, not it.


75. What kind of tree fits in your hand?
Answer: Palm tree
Explanation: “Palm” means your hand and the tree.


76. What comes in many colors but is always green inside?
Answer: Watermelon
Explanation: Watermelon rind is green, inside is red or pink.


77. What can be seen once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M”
Explanation: Look at the letters in each word.


78. What starts with a P, ends with an E, and has thousands of letters?
Answer: Post office
Explanation: Contains lots of mail—“letters.”


79. What type of cheese is made backwards?
Answer: Edam
Explanation: “Edam” is “made” spelled backward.


80. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future
Explanation: It’s always ahead, never visible.


81. What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary?
Answer: Incorrectly
Explanation: The word itself is always spelled “incorrectly.”


82. What can travel the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: Stamp
Explanation: Stamps are stuck in a corner of mail.


83. What has a bark but no bite?
Answer: Tree
Explanation: Tree bark, not a dog’s bark.


84. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Age
Explanation: You only get older.


85. What do you call a bear with no teeth?
Answer: Gummy bear
Explanation: Candy joke—gummy bears have no teeth.


86. What can’t be seen, can’t be felt, can’t be heard, and can’t be smelt?
Answer: The dark
Explanation: Darkness isn’t a thing—it’s just the absence of light.


87. What is the end of everything?
Answer: The letter “G”
Explanation: “Everything” ends with a G.


88. What has many keys but cannot open a single lock?
Answer: Piano (or keyboard)
Explanation: Keys make music, not unlock anything.


89. What begins with an E and only contains one letter?
Answer: Envelope
Explanation: Envelopes hold a “letter.”


90. What has a neck but no head, two arms but no hands?
Answer: Shirt
Explanation: Shirt parts are called “neck” and “arms.”

91. What is white when it’s dirty?
Answer: Chalkboard
Explanation: White chalk makes a blackboard dirty.


92. What kind of dog has no tail?
Answer: Hot dog
Explanation: The food kind!


93. What is always on its way but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow
Explanation: Tomorrow is always “coming.”


94. What can’t be used until it’s broken?
Answer: Egg
Explanation: You break eggs to use them.


95. What has an eye but cannot see?
Answer: Needle
Explanation: The “eye” is the hole for thread.


96. What has an end but no beginning?
Answer: Stick
Explanation: Every stick has two ends.


97. What belongs to you but gets used by everyone else?
Answer: Your name
Explanation: Others say it more than you.


98. What can be stolen, mistaken, or altered, yet never leaves you?
Answer: Your identity
Explanation: Your identity is always yours, even if taken or faked.


99. What has roots nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, and yet never grows?
Answer: Mountain
Explanation: “Roots” underground, taller than trees, but doesn’t grow.


100. What disappears as soon as you say its name?
Answer: Silence
Explanation: Saying anything breaks the silence.


101. What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain
Explanation: Rain falls, never rises back up.


102. What has a golden head and a golden tail, but no body?
Answer: A gold coin
Explanation: Coins have “heads” and “tails.”


103. What flies without wings?
Answer: Time
Explanation: Time “flies” but doesn’t have wings.


104. What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: Clock
Explanation: Clock “face” and “hands.”


105. What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: Palm
Explanation: See above—a palm tree and your palm.


106. What’s easy to get into, but hard to get out of?
Answer: Trouble
Explanation: Trouble is easy to find, hard to escape.


107. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future
Explanation: The future’s always ahead.


108. What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Answer: A penny
Explanation: Pennies are brown coins with a head and tail.


109. What is always running but never moves?
Answer: Clock
Explanation: Time “runs” but clocks don’t move.


110. What can’t be put in a saucepan?
Answer: Its lid (when full)
Explanation: The lid won’t fit inside if the pan is full.


111. What is made of wood but can’t be sawed?
Answer: Sawdust
Explanation: Sawdust is too fine to saw.


112. What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter “W”
Explanation: The word “rainbow” ends with W.


113. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light
Explanation: Light fills rooms but isn’t physical.


114. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M”
Explanation: The letter “M” appears as described.


115. What has one head and one foot but only one leg?
Answer: A bed
Explanation: A bed has a headboard, footboard, and stands on legs.


116. What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and rivers, but no water?
Answer: A map
Explanation: Maps represent these features, but aren’t real.


117. What kind of tree can you hold in your hand?
Answer: Palm
Explanation: It’s both a tree and part of your hand.


118. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: Piano
Explanation: Piano keys play music, not unlock locks.


119. What has a neck but no head, two arms but no hands?
Answer: Shirt
Explanation: Shirt parts are called “neck” and “arms.”


120. What has a tongue but cannot talk, gets around a lot but cannot walk?
Answer: A shoe
Explanation: Shoes have “tongues” and move as you walk, but can’t talk or walk alone.

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