Hard Riddles for Adults
Sometimes it is important to test our capabilities beyond our imagination. We often underestimate our real potential and block ourselves in bubbles. Life is about breaking those bubbles, coming out of your comfort zone, thinking out of the box and making a real difference in the world.
Don’t worry, though—we’re not asking you to climb Mount Everest! Instead, we’ve got a set of riddles that will challenge your mind and make you think. These riddles aren’t easy to crack like the riddles for kids, but if you consider yourself a real problem solver, this is your chance to prove it.
Remember, no riddle is hard provided you have a focused and creative mind. So, without further testing your patience and creating more suspense, let’s dive right into these 101 brain teasers Hard Riddles for Adults and see if you can solve them all.
101 Hard Riddles for Adults
In the father’s will, he states that his sons must race their horses, and the son with the slowest horse will receive the father’s entire fortune. The two sons race, but never finish it, as they deliberately slow their horses. After visiting the oracle, the sons race their horses as fast as possible. What did the oracle tell them?
Answer: The oracle told them to switch horses.
If you throw me out the window, I’ll leave a grieving wife. Bring me back, but through the door, you’ll see someone giving life. What am I?
Answer: The letter ‘N’.
You have two ropes. Each rope takes one hour to burn. These ropes are not identical, nor are they uniform; i.e., it does not necessarily take half an hour for half the rope to burn. With only these two ropes and a way to light them, how do you measure out 45 minutes?
Answer: Light one rope at both ends and the other at one end. When the first rope burns completely (30 minutes), light the other end of the second rope. The remaining rope will take 15 more minutes to burn.
Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I?
Answer: A ton.
What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter ‘W’.
We traveled the sea far and wide. At one time, two of my sailors were standing on opposite sides of the ship. One was looking west and the other one east. And at the same time, they could see each other clearly. How can that be possible?
Answer: They were standing at opposite ends of the ship, but both were facing the same direction.
Why are manholes round instead of square?
Answer: Because a round manhole cover cannot fall through its circular opening.
If 1+9+8=1, what is 2+8+9?
Answer: 1, when it is read as time on a clock: 1 o’clock plus 9 hours equals 10 o’clock, and 1+9+8 brings it back to 1 o’clock.
Two fathers and their two sons go fishing together. They each catch one fish to take home with them. They do not lose any fish, and yet when they arrive at home, they only have three fish. How can this be?
Answer: They are a grandfather, father, and son.
Whoever makes it, tells it not; whoever takes it, knows it not; and whoever knows it, wants it not. What is it?
Answer: Counterfeit money.
I know a word; six letters it contains. And yet if you take one away, twelve is what remains.
Answer: Dozens.
One strand dangles. Two strands twist. Three or more can fashion this.
Answer: A braid.
When is 1500 plus 20 and 1600 minus 40 the same thing?
Answer: When using military time. 1520 hours is the same as 1600 hours minus 40 minutes.
I don’t have eyes, but once I did see. Once I had thoughts, but now I’m white and empty.
Answer: A skull.
You will always find me in the past. I can be created in the present, but the future can never taint me. What am I?
Answer: History.
What is it that no one wants, but no one wants to lose?
Answer: A lawsuit.
I have seven letters and am something you eat. My only anagram can help your pain. If you remove my first 2 letters, I wear things down. Removing my first 3 letters is an adjective, and removing my first 4 letters leaves a measure of time. What am I?
Answer: Sausage.
A bat and a ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Answer: 5 cents.
Tim and Mel are long-distance lovers. Tim has just purchased an engagement ring for Mel and wants to mail it to her. Unfortunately, the only way to ensure the ring will be received is to place a lock on the package. Tim has locks, and Mel has locks, but neither has keys for each other’s locks. How can they ensure the ring isn’t stolen?
Answer: Tim locks the package with his lock and sends it to Mel. Mel adds her lock and sends it back. Tim removes his lock and sends it to her again.
Three people check into a room. The bill is $30. They split it three ways. Later on, the hotel realizes they should have charged $25, so they send a bellhop to return $5. The bellhop realizes he can’t split $5 three ways, so he gives each person $1 and keeps $2. They have now paid $9 each for the room, the bellhop has $2. $27 + $2 = $29. What happened to the last $1 considering $30 was originally paid?
Answer: There is no missing dollar. The $27 includes the $25 room and the $2 the bellhop kept.
You are playing a game of dodgeball with two other people, John and Tom. You’re standing in a triangle, and you all take turns throwing at one of the others of your choosing until there is only one person remaining. You have a 30% chance of hitting someone you aim at, John has a 50% chance, and Tom a 100% chance. If the order of throwing is you, John, then Tom, what should you do to have the best chance of winning?
Answer: Aim at the ground or miss intentionally, so that John will aim at Tom (the biggest threat).
What English word has three consecutive double letters?
Answer: Bookkeeper.
Thousands lay up gold within this house, but no man made it. Spears past counting guard this house, but no man wards it.
Answer: A beehive.
What goes through a door but never goes in and never comes out?
Answer: A keyhole.
Flour of England, fruit of Spain, met together in a shower of rain; put in a bag tied round with a string. If you’ll tell me this riddle, I’ll give you a ring.
Answer: A plum pudding.
What time of day, when written in capital letters, is the same forwards, backwards, and upside down?
Answer: Noon.
What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
What flies without wings?
Answer: Time.
What word looks the same upside down and backward?
Answer: Swims.
What’s the difference between here and there?
Answer: The letter “T.”
What is round on both ends and “hi” in the middle?
Answer: Ohio.
What body part is pronounced as one letter but written with three, only two different letters are used?
Answer: Eye.
What is harder to catch the faster you run?
Answer: Your breath.
It is an insect, and the first part of its name is the name of another insect. What is it?
Answer: Beetle (bee).
Which vehicle is spelled the same forwards and backward?
Answer: Racecar.
This old one runs forever but never moves at all. He has no lungs nor throat, but still a mighty roaring call. What is it?
Answer: A waterfall.
You hear it speak, for it has a hard tongue. But it cannot breathe, for it has no lung. What is it?
Answer: A bell.
What is that which goes with a car, comes with a car, is of no use to a car, and yet the car cannot go without it?
Answer: Noise.
Lives without a body, hears without ears, speaks without a mouth, to which the air alone gives birth. What is it?
Answer: An echo.
What is it that no man ever yet did see, which never was, but always is to be?
Answer: Tomorrow.
What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?
Answer: Charcoal.
The state of holding a person in your person.
Answer: Pregnancy.
How can the number four be half of five?
Answer: In Roman numerals: IV is half of V.
Little trotty hetty coat in a long petticoat and a red nose the longer she stands the shorter she grows. What is it?
Answer: A candle.
The land was white, the seed was black. It’ll take a good scholar to riddle me that. What is it?
Answer: A newspaper.
It is in the rock, but not in the stone; It is in the marrow, but not in the bone; It is in the bolster, but not in the bed; It is not in the living, nor yet in the dead.
Answer: The letter ‘R.’
I never was, am always to be. No one ever saw me, nor ever will. And yet I am the confidence of all to live and breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?
Answer: Tomorrow.
My tines are long. My tines are short. My tines end ere my first report. What am I?
Answer: A fork.
My first letter is in the spell, but not the book; My second letter is in the fright and also the shook; My third letter is in the cauldron, but never in the pot; My fourth letter is in the net and also in the knot; My fifth letter is in the bat, but never in the vampire; My sixth letter is in the coal, but not found in fire; My seventh letter is in moon, but not in night. Who am I?
Answer: A pumpkin.
Hard Riddles for Kids
What can you fill up with water but never gets wet inside?
Answer: A shadow.
I start with the end, and end with space and time. I am crucial to all things, and I am everywhere. What am I?
Answer: The letter E.
You can see me in water, but I never actually get wet. What am I?
Answer: A reflection.
I flow endlessly without ever moving. What am I?
Answer: A river on a map.
Every time you say my name, I vanish. What am I?
Answer: Silence.
I hold water, but I’m filled with holes. What am I?
Answer: A sponge.
I travel faster in cold than in heat, but I remain the same. What am I?
Answer: Sound.
Even though I’m full of holes, I can still hold water. What am I?
Answer: A fishing net.
The more you remove from me, the larger I grow. What am I?
Answer: A hole.
I keep moving without ever feeling tired or hot. What am I?
Answer: A river.
I can run without legs, have a mouth but never speak, a bed but never sleep. What am I?
Answer: A river.
I have no doors, no windows, no walls, but I hold a key. What am I?
Answer: A piano.
Taken from the earth and trapped in wood, I’m used by almost everyone. What am I?
Answer: A pencil lead.
If you own me, you’ll want to share me. If you share me, you’ll lose me. What am I?
Answer: A secret.
I am liquid, but you can’t drink me. I come down but never go up. What am I?
Answer: Rain.
The wetter I get, the more I dry. What am I?
Answer: A towel.
I am always hungry and need to be fed. If I touch you, you will burn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
I appear once in every minute, twice in every moment, but never in a thousand years. What am I?
Answer: The letter M.
I’m so delicate that saying my name will destroy me. What am I?
Answer: Silence.
What can you hold with your left hand but not with your right?
Answer: Your right elbow.
I have keys but open no locks. I have space but no room. You can enter, but you can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
I am full of holes, but I can still hold water. What am I?
Answer: A sponge.
I don’t have a mouth, but I can eat. I don’t have ears, but I can hear. What am I?
Answer: A microphone.
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
I am not alive, but I can grow. I don’t have lungs, but I need air. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
What can be seen once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M.”
I can travel all around the world without ever leaving my corner. What am I?
Answer: A stamp.
What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg.
I run but never walk. I have a bed but never sleep. I have a mouth but never eat. What am I?
Answer: A river.
I am tall when I am young, and short when I am old. What am I?
Answer: A candle.
What comes once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day?
Answer: The letter “E.”
What gets wetter as it dries?
Answer: A towel.
I can fill a room, but I take up no space. What am I?
Answer: Light.
What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future.
I have branches, but no fruit, trunk, or leaves. What am I?
Answer: A bank.
I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
What can you hold in your right hand but never in your left?
Answer: Your left hand.
What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
What can travel faster than anything else, but has no physical form?
Answer: A thought.
What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
I never ask questions, but I am always answered. What am I?
Answer: A doorbell.
I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have nobody, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
I am taken from a mine and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost everyone. What am I?
Answer: A pencil lead.
What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain.
I start with “P” and end with “E,” but I have thousands of letters. What am I?
Answer: A post office.
The more of this there is, the less you can see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness.
I am not a living thing, but I can grow taller the more I eat. What am I?
Answer: A snowball.
I have an eye but can’t see. What am I?
Answer: A needle.
What has many teeth but can’t bite?
Answer: Comb.