The satisfaction that comes after solving a tricky riddle? We know it, and so do the kids. Riddles for kids make for an excellent game in the classroom, but they’re also a great way to boost their creative and critical thinking at home. A riddle is a kind of puzzle in the form of a question or statement. The way a riddle is worded is often meant to confuse or trick you. They’re best solved when kids are encouraged to use their imagination, and to have some fun while they’re at it. Check out the 161 riddles for kids with answers below. You’ll find easy riddles, play-on-words riddles, hard riddles, math riddles and funny riddles for a good, little laugh.
Easy Riddles for Kids
1) What can you catch, but not throw?
Answer: A cold
2) What has hands, but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock
3) I am made to absorb, and I can hold liquid even though I’m full of holes. What am I?
Answer: A sponge
4) When does achievement come before drive, goals, and pursuit?
Answer: In the dictionary
5) I get answered even though I never ask a question. What am I?
Answer: A door knock or doorbell
6) What’s really easy to get into, and hard to get out of?
Answer: Trouble
7) What’s black and white and read all over?
Answer: A newspaper
8) What has legs, but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A table
9) What kind of cup doesn’t hold water?
Answer: Cupcake or hiccup
10) I am always running, but never get tired or hot. What am I?
Answer: The refrigerator
(Easy Riddles for Kids (Continued))
11) What has a head and tail but no body?
Answer: A coin
12) What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole
13) I am easy to lift but hard to throw. What am I?
Answer: A feather
14) The more of this there is, the less you can see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness
15) What is as big as an elephant but weighs nothing?
Answer: An elephant’s shadow
16) What has thirteen hearts, but no other organs?
Answer: A deck of cards
(Easy Riddles for Kids (Continued))
17) I have four wheels and flies. What am I?
Answer: A garbage truck
18) What goes up but never comes back down?
Answer: Your height (or your age)
19) What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A clock
20) I have a thumb and four fingers but I’m not alive. What am I?
Answer: A glove
Play on Words Riddles for Kids
21) I am always in front of you and never behind you. What am I?
Answer: Your future
22) What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter “W”
23) You won’t see me at all in March, May, or January, but catch me once in June and twice in November. What am I?
Answer: The letter “E”
24) What English word has three consecutive double letters?
Answer: Bookkeeper
25) If you don’t keep me, I’ll break. What am I?
Answer: A promise
26) I’m not in Venus or Neptune, but you can find me in Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus. What am I?
Answer: The letter “R”
27) What word begins and ends with “E” but only has one letter?
Answer: Envelope
(Riddles for Kids (Continued))
28) Kids can make it but never hold it or see it. What is it?
Answer: Noise
29) Which letter of the alphabet has the most water?
Answer: The letter “C”
30) What letter of the alphabet appears at the start of questions?
Answer: The letter Y (why)
31) I sound like I could cut you, but I’m actually quite comfortable. I can be green or yellow. I can be stiff or soft. Plus, I am a friend to bugs and also bare feet. What am I?
Answer: A blade of grass
32) Mississippi has four S letters and four I letters. Can you spell that without using S or I?
Answer: T H A T (spell that)
33) You see me once in June, twice in November, but not at all in May. What am I?
Answer: The letter “e”
34) What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise
35) You are always living in me. No matter how much time goes by I am still right there with you. What am I?
Answer: The present moment
36) What has lots of eyes, but can’t see?
Answer: A potato
(Riddles for Kids (Continued))
37) A girl fell off a 20-foot ladder. She wasn’t hurt. Why?
Answer: She fell off the bottom step
38) I am round as a sphere but then become something else. I am also one hundred yards long, or even longer. What am I?
Answer: A ball of yarn
39) There’s a one-story house where everything is yellow. The walls are yellow. The doors are yellow. Even all the furniture is yellow. The house has yellow beds and yellow couches. What color are the stairs?
Answer: Well, the stairs don’t exist. It’s a one-story house.
40) What comes once in a second, twice in a decade, but just a single time in a century?
Answer: The letter E
41) I don’t have money, though I do have banks. I feed others, though I don’t eat. Cross me if you can, I won’t be mad. What am I?
Answer: The mouth of a river
42) I have a stem, but I am not a flower. I have a foot, but I cannot hop. Children are too young to hold me. What am I?
Answer: A wine glass
43) What’s a frog’s favorite game?
Answer: Leapfrog
44) What four-letter word can be written the same forward and backward, as well as upside down?
Answer: Noon
(Riddles for Kids (Continued))
45) What three letters change a boy into a man?
Answer: A-G-E
46) What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short (add e-r and it becomes shorter)
47) What word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly
48) Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I?
Answer: The word “ton”
49) What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot
50) What 7-letter word contains hundreds of letters?
Answer: Mailbox
Hard Riddles for Kids with Answers
51) You can touch me, but I can’t touch you back. You can see me, but I only reflect you and can never reject you. What am I?
Answer: A mirror
52) What is so fragile that saying its name will make it break?
Answer: Silence
53) People buy me to eat, but I cannot be eaten. What am I?
Answer: A plate
54) The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps
55) What has to be broken before you can eat it?
Answer: An egg
56) I will fill a room but take up no space. What am I?
Answer: Light
57) I have seven rings made of rock and ice, but you cannot wear them on your fingers. They are way, way too big. What am I?
Answer: Saturn
58) I look like you, but I am not you. You can blow me up or find me in a wallet. Share me or frame me, both are nice. What am I?
Answer: A photograph of you
(Hard Riddles for Kids with Answers (Continued))
59) I can be red or blue, I am always changing. I can ruin your day or lift you up. I am always with you except when you sleep. What am I?
Answer: Your mood
60) We come in a set. We can dash or pour. If we’re too much, the serving is ruined. If we’re held back, the course is flat. What are we?
Answer: Salt and pepper
61) I can be open or closed, or big or small. I can reveal the truth or hide it. I am almost always welcome and can spring up unannounced. Everyone has one, but not everyone shares. Laughter comes after me. What am I?
Answer: A smile
62) My name seems harsh, but I am still and silent. You are supposed to eat me, but some display me. My name is not easy to do to me because I am hard on the outside. What am I?
Answer: A squash
63) I am light and seem to have no substance at all. But even the strongest person in the world can’t hold me for very long. What am I?
Answer: Breath
64) You can play me with cards, but don’t burn me. Rest glasses on me or walk across me. What am I?
Answer: A bridge
65) I run, but I don’t walk. I drip and drop, but I can’t pick myself up. You have to consume me and sometimes I surround you. What am I?
Answer: Water
66) It’s good to stretch me and push my limits. The more you use me, the stronger I get. When I am sharp, I am at my best. What am I?
Answer: Your brain
67) A doctor drops off a young boy at school every morning before work. The doctor is not the child’s father, but the child is the doctor’s son. Explain.
Answer: The doctor is the boy’s mom
(Hard Riddles for Kids with Answers (Continued))
68) I’m always on the dinner table, but you don’t get to eat me. What am I?
Answer: Plates and silverware
69) I have many teeth, but I cannot bite. What am I?
Answer: A comb
70) Tom’s father has three sons. The first two are named Jim and John. What is the third one’s name?
Answer: Tom
71) I have to be opened, but I don’t have a lid or a key to get in. What am I?
Answer: An egg
72) What has many keys but cannot unlock a single door?
Answer: A piano
73) I run along your property and all around the backyard, yet I never move. What am I?
Answer: A fence
74) I am often following you and copying your every move. Yet you can never touch me or catch me. What am I?
Answer: A shadow
75) What can you hear, but not see or touch, even though you control it?
Answer: Your voice
(Hard Riddles for Kids with Answers (Continued))
76) I have a head much smaller than my long neck. People who play with me pick at me and that’s fine. What am I?
Answer: A guitar
77) People have stepped on me, but not many. I never stay full for long. I have a dark side. What am I?
Answer: The moon
78) I am tall when I am young, and I am short when I am old. What am I?
Answer: A candle
79) What can travel around the world while staying in the same corner?
Answer: A stamp
80) The person who makes me does not need me. The person who buys me does not use me. The person who uses me does not know it. What am I?
Answer: A coffin
81) I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map
82) I am not alive, but I can grow. I don’t have lungs, but I need air. I don’t have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?
Answer: Fire
83) The more there is of me, the less you see. I take up space, but you cannot grab me. What am I?
Answer: Fog (or darkness)
Math Riddles for Kids
84) Which month of the year has 28 days?
Answer: All of them
85) Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?
Answer: Neither, they both weigh the same.
86) What word contains 26 letters, but only has three syllables?
Answer: Alphabet
87) What do the numbers 11 and 88 have in common?
Answer: They both look the same upside-down and backward.
88) Four siblings stood underneath an umbrella. Two were holding dogs and two were holding cats. How did they all keep from getting wet?
Answer: It wasn’t raining.
89) If it takes 20 workers 20 hours to build a garage from start to finish. How long will it take ten workers to complete the same project?
Answer: No time. The job is complete.
90) One year has 365 days. How many seconds are in a year?
Answer: 12 (the second day of each month)
(Math Riddles for Kids (Continued))
91) There are 3 apples in the basket and you take away 2. How many apples do you have now?
Answer: You have 2 apples. You took away 2 apples and left 1 in the basket.
92) I add 5 to 9 and get 2. The answer is correct, so what am I?
Answer: A clock. When it is 9 a.m., adding 5 hours would make it 2 p.m.
93) Which number stays the same no matter what number you multiply it with?
Answer: Zero
94) Kavita has 3 strawberries and 2 oranges in one hand and 2 strawberries and 4 oranges in the other. How many oranges and strawberries did Kavita have?
Answer: 6 oranges and 5 strawberries
95) Bill, Judy, and Dane attended a baseball game together and bought one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy in total?
Answer: Three
96) How many times can you subtract 10 from 25?
Answer: Once. After you subtract 10 from 25 the first time, it becomes 15.
97) What are eight 8s that add up to 1,000?
Answer: 8 + 8 + 8 + 88 + 888 = 1,000
98) Rachel goes to the supermarket and buys 10 tomatoes. Unfortunately, on the way back home, all but 9 get ruined. How many tomatoes are left in good condition?
Answer: 9
(Math Riddles for Kids (Continued))
99) When my father was 30 years old, I was 9 years old. Now I am 40 years old, so what is my father’s age now?
Answer: 61
100) How do you make the number 7 even without adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing?
Answer: Just delete the “S” in 7
101) What comes before 11 and after 15?
Answer: 10 and 16
102) When Rebecca was 8 years old, her little brother, Bob, was half her age. If Rebecca is 20 years old today, how old is Bob?
Answer: 16
103) What can you put between 4 and 5 so that the result is more than 4 but less than 5?
Answer: A decimal
104) How many sides does a square have?
Answer: 4
105) If 2 is company and 3 is a crowd, what are 4 and 5?
Answer: 9
106) When is 1500 plus 20 and 1600 minus 40 the same thing?
Answer: When it’s military time
(Math Riddles for Kids (Continued))
107) Cindy has a very big family. She has 20 aunts, 20 uncles and 50 cousins. Each of her cousins has an aunt who is not Cindy’s aunt. How is this possible?
Answer: The cousins’ aunt is Cindy’s mom!
108) Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?
Answer: Neither, they both weigh a ton.
109) Mrs. Willow has 5 daughters. Each of these daughters has a brother. How many children does Mrs. Willow have?
Answer: Six children. Each daughter has the same brother. There are 5 daughters and 1 son.
110) A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many does he have left?
Answer: 9
111) If two’s a couple and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine
112) I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
Answer: Seven (remove the S and you get even)
113) You see a boat filled with people, but there isn’t a single person on board. How is that possible?
Answer: All the people on the boat are married.
114) A man is twice as old as his sister. When his sister is 30, how old will he be?
Answer: 60
115) What three numbers, none of which is zero, give the same result whether they’re added or multiplied?
Answer: 1, 2, and 3
Funny Riddles for Kids with Answers
116) What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: A rubber band
117) I add lots of flavor and have many layers, but if you get too close I’ll make you cry. What am I?
Answer: An onion
118) Grandpa went out for a walk and it started to rain. He didn’t bring an umbrella or a hat. His clothes got soaked, but not a hair on his head was wet. How is this possible?
Answer: Grandpa was bald.
119) What’s bright orange with green on top and sounds like a parrot?
Answer: A carrot
120) Picture this scene: You are alone in a forest and you hear a noise. You realize you are being followed. You begin to run as fast as you can, but whatever is following is getting closer and closer. How do you escape?
Answer: Stop imagining that scenario and imagine something else.
121) If you take away one hand, some will remain. What am I?
Answer: Handsome
122) How should you satisfy your sweet tooth when it’s way after bedtime?
Answer: Eat choco-late
123) Have you ever heard the story of Goldilocks? When your shoes are off what trait do you share with the animals the girl in the story bothers?
Answer: Bare feet
124) I can travel at nearly 100 miles per hour, but never leave the room. You can cover me up, but that doesn’t slow me down. You will not know if I come only once or again and again and again. What am I?
Answer: A sneeze
125) I go around the world but never leave the corner. What am I?
Answer: A stamp
(Funny Riddles for Kids with Answers (Continued))
126) What is always answered without being questioned?
Answer: A doorbell
127) What two keys cannot open any doors?
Answer: Monkey and donkey
128) What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: A palm tree
129) What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
Answer: Lunch and dinner
130) Which fish costs the most?
Answer: A goldfish
131) My teddy bear is never hungry. Why?
Answer: Your teddy bear is stuffed.
132) Who wears shoes while sleeping?
Answer: A horse
133) Where do you take a sick boat?
Answer: To the dock-tor
134) What loses a head in the morning, but gets it back at night?
Answer: A pillow
135) What is something brown with a head and tail but no legs?
Answer: A penny
(Funny Riddles for Kids with Answers (Continued))
136) What happens when a sheep studies karate?
Answer: Lamb chop
137) How do you make the word “one” disappear?
Answer: Add a “G” in front and it’s gone.
138) What is it called when a dinosaur makes a soccer goal?
Answer: Dino-score
139) What kind of room has no walls, doors, or windows?
Answer: A mushroom
140) What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle
141) What has 88 teeth but has never brushed them?
Answer: A piano
142) What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Age
143) You walk into a room that has a match, a candle, and a fireplace. Which should you light first?
Answer: The match
144) If you threw a black stone into the Red Sea, what would it become?
Answer: Wet
145) What building has the most stories?
Answer: A library
(Funny Riddles for Kids with Answers (Continued))
146) Why did the football coach go to the bank?
Answer: He wanted his quarterback
147) How do shells get around the ocean?
Answer: A taxi crab
148) How do you catch a school of fish?
Answer: A bookworm
149) Imagine you are trapped in a closet with a locked door. How will you get out?
Answer: Stop imagining
150) What is used by others but only belongs to you?
Answer: Your name
151) What did the sea say to the sand?
Answer: Nothing, it just waved.
152) What room do ghosts avoid?
Answer: The living room
(Funny Riddles for Kids with Answers (Continued))
153) Why don’t scientists trust atoms?
Answer: Because they make up everything.
154) What do you call a fish with no eyes?
Answer: A fsh
155) What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge
156) Why did the math book look so sad?
Answer: Because it had too many problems.
157) I’m tall when I’m new and short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A pencil
158) Why did the cookie go to the doctor?
Answer: Because it was feeling crummy.
159) What did one wall say to the other wall?
Answer: I’ll meet you at the corner.
160) What kind of shoes do ninjas wear?
Answer: Sneakers
161) What did the zero say to the eight?
Answer: Nice belt!
Fun Riddles for Kids with Answers
Whether you’re working together in the classroom or at home with the kids, you can expect some bursts of satisfaction, frustration, confusion or hilarity to ensue. Although this is a list of riddles for kids, my guess is that you might have a similar reaction too.
Additional Resources
- Teacher Intro Letter to Parents – Examples
- 124 Good Icebreaker Questions for Students/Adults
- 141 Fun, Weird, and Interesting Facts
- 100 Best Quotes About Education & Teachers
- 30 Writing Activities for Preschool & Kindergarten
