Dronk

Riddles for adults with answers

Here are 150 riddles for adults with answers, in eight groups: classic riddles, tricky logic, funny ones, short one liners, wordplay, hard riddles, lateral thinking puzzles and a dark but harmless round. Every answer is hidden until you tap it, so you can read them out without spoiling anything.

Classic150 riddles

What has keys but can't open a single lock?

Read the riddle out, give the table 30 seconds, then tap Show answer. The same 150 riddles are listed below.

Draw a random riddle on the card, guess, then tap Show answer. Switch groups on and off to set the difficulty, or press print for a sheet with every riddle and answer.

Riddles
150
Groups
8
Best for
2 to 10 people

150 riddles for adults with answers

Classic and Short are the warm up: most people get them in under a minute. Logic, Hard and Lateral thinking are for when the table wants to argue. Funny and Wordplay are groan territory, which is the point.

Classic riddles

20
  1. What has keys but can't open a single lock?
    Show answer
    A piano.
  2. What gets wetter the more it dries?
    Show answer
    A towel.
  3. What has a neck but no head?
    Show answer
    A bottle.
  4. What can you catch but not throw?
    Show answer
    A cold.
  5. What has hands but can't clap?
    Show answer
    A clock.
  6. What has one eye but can't see?
    Show answer
    A needle.
  7. What goes up but never comes down?
    Show answer
    Your age.
  8. What has lots of teeth but can't bite?
    Show answer
    A comb.
  9. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
    Show answer
    Footsteps.
  10. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
    Show answer
    A stamp.
  11. What has a head and a tail but no body?
    Show answer
    A coin.
  12. What is full of holes but still holds water?
    Show answer
    A sponge.
  13. What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
    Show answer
    Your name.
  14. What runs but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, and has a bed but never sleeps?
    Show answer
    A river.
  15. I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?
    Show answer
    A map.
  16. What can you break without ever touching it?
    Show answer
    A promise.
  17. What has legs but never walks?
    Show answer
    A table.
  18. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
    Show answer
    The letter M.
  19. What is always in front of you but can never be seen?
    Show answer
    The future.
  20. What has a thumb and four fingers but isn't alive?
    Show answer
    A glove.

Tricky logic riddles

20
  1. A man looks at a photo and says: "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is in the photo?
    Show answer
    His son. "My father's son" is the man himself, so the man in the photo is his son.
  2. If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you don't have me any more. What am I?
    Show answer
    A secret.
  3. How many months have 28 days?
    Show answer
    All twelve.
  4. A rooster lays an egg on the very top of a barn roof. Which side does it roll down?
    Show answer
    Neither. Roosters don't lay eggs.
  5. There are three apples and you take away two. How many apples do you have?
    Show answer
    Two, the ones you took.
  6. A doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour. How long do they last?
    Show answer
    One hour. You take the first straight away.
  7. What occurs once in every year, twice in every week, but never in a day?
    Show answer
    The letter E.
  8. Mary's father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini and Nono. What is the fifth daughter called?
    Show answer
    Mary.
  9. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain in the world?
    Show answer
    Mount Everest. It was the tallest before anyone measured it.
  10. How many times can you subtract 10 from 100?
    Show answer
    Once. After that you are subtracting from 90.
  11. A plane crashes exactly on the border between the US and Canada. Where do they bury the survivors?
    Show answer
    Nowhere. You don't bury survivors.
  12. A red house is made of red bricks and a blue house of blue bricks. What is a greenhouse made of?
    Show answer
    Glass.
  13. If 5 machines take 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long do 100 machines take to make 100 widgets?
    Show answer
    5 minutes. Each machine makes one widget in 5 minutes.
  14. You are running a race and overtake the person in second place. What place are you in?
    Show answer
    Second.
  15. A boy is in an accident and rushed to hospital. The surgeon says: "I can't operate, he's my son." The surgeon is not his father. Who is it?
    Show answer
    His mother.
  16. Two fathers and two sons go fishing. Each catches one fish, but only three fish are caught. How?
    Show answer
    There are only three of them: a grandfather, his son and his grandson.
  17. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
    Show answer
    Seven (take away the S).
  18. What has to be broken before you can use it?
    Show answer
    An egg.
  19. If you drop a yellow hat in the Red Sea, what does it become?
    Show answer
    Wet.
  20. A butcher is 1.85 metres tall and wears size 44 shoes. What does he weigh?
    Show answer
    Meat.

Funny riddles for adults

20
  1. What has four wheels and flies?
    Show answer
    A rubbish truck.
  2. What do you call a fish with no eyes?
    Show answer
    A fsh.
  3. Why did the bicycle fall over?
    Show answer
    Because it was two tired.
  4. What kind of room has no doors or windows?
    Show answer
    A mushroom.
  5. What did the ocean say to the beach?
    Show answer
    Nothing, it just waved.
  6. What gets bigger the more you take away from it?
    Show answer
    A hole.
  7. What do you call a deer with no eyes?
    Show answer
    No idea (no eye deer).
  8. What do you call a bear with no teeth?
    Show answer
    A gummy bear.
  9. Why can't a nose be 12 inches long?
    Show answer
    Because then it would be a foot.
  10. What has ears but can't hear?
    Show answer
    Corn.
  11. Which building has the most stories?
    Show answer
    A library.
  12. What starts with P, ends with E and has thousands of letters?
    Show answer
    A post office.
  13. Why did the scarecrow win an award?
    Show answer
    He was outstanding in his field.
  14. What does a cloud wear under its raincoat?
    Show answer
    Thunderwear.
  15. What did one wall say to the other wall?
    Show answer
    I'll meet you at the corner.
  16. What can you serve but never eat?
    Show answer
    A tennis ball.
  17. What is brown and sticky?
    Show answer
    A stick.
  18. What do you call a man with a spade on his head?
    Show answer
    Doug. (Without the spade, he's Douglas.)
  19. What do you call someone who is afraid of Santa?
    Show answer
    Claustrophobic.
  20. What's the best way to watch a fly fishing competition?
    Show answer
    On a live stream.

Short riddles

20
  1. What has a ring but no finger?
    Show answer
    A phone.
  2. What has one head, one foot and four legs?
    Show answer
    A bed.
  3. What has a bark but no bite?
    Show answer
    A tree.
  4. What is always coming but never arrives?
    Show answer
    Tomorrow.
  5. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
    Show answer
    Light.
  6. What goes up and down but never moves?
    Show answer
    Stairs.
  7. What has its bottom at the top?
    Show answer
    Your legs.
  8. What kind of band never plays music?
    Show answer
    A rubber band.
  9. What has a spine but no bones?
    Show answer
    A book.
  10. What flies without wings?
    Show answer
    Time.
  11. What do you throw out when you want to use it?
    Show answer
    An anchor.
  12. What kind of tree fits in your hand?
    Show answer
    A palm.
  13. What can be cracked, made, told and played?
    Show answer
    A joke.
  14. What has a heart that doesn't beat?
    Show answer
    An artichoke.
  15. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
    Show answer
    Silence.
  16. What comes down but never goes up?
    Show answer
    Rain.
  17. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it and grey when you throw it away?
    Show answer
    Charcoal.
  18. What has 13 hearts but no other organs?
    Show answer
    A deck of cards.
  19. What goes through towns and fields but never moves?
    Show answer
    A road.
  20. What lets you look straight through a wall?
    Show answer
    A window.

Wordplay riddles

20
  1. What word is spelled wrong in every dictionary?
    Show answer
    Wrong.
  2. Forwards I am heavy, backwards I am not. What am I?
    Show answer
    Ton (backwards it is not).
  3. What five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
    Show answer
    Short (add er and it becomes shorter).
  4. What starts with E, ends with E and only has one letter in it?
    Show answer
    An envelope.
  5. What English word has three double letters in a row?
    Show answer
    Bookkeeper.
  6. What begins with T, ends with T and has T in it?
    Show answer
    A teapot.
  7. I am a word of three letters. Add two more and fewer there will be. What am I?
    Show answer
    Few (add er and you get fewer).
  8. What seven letter word becomes longer when you take away its third letter?
    Show answer
    Lounger (take away the u and you get longer).
  9. Which word contains all 26 letters?
    Show answer
    Alphabet.
  10. What can you put between a 7 and an 8 so the result is more than 7 but less than 8?
    Show answer
    A decimal point: 7.8.
  11. What has four letters, sometimes has nine letters, but never has five letters?
    Show answer
    The words in the question: "what" has four letters, "sometimes" has nine, and "never" has five.
  12. What word in capital letters reads the same upside down and turned around?
    Show answer
    SWIMS.
  13. Which is heavier, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?
    Show answer
    Neither. They both weigh a ton.
  14. What is the longest word in the dictionary?
    Show answer
    Smiles, because there is a mile between the first and last letter.
  15. What four letter word reads the same forwards, backwards and upside down?
    Show answer
    NOON.
  16. Which letter of the alphabet holds the most water?
    Show answer
    C (the sea).
  17. Which letter of the alphabet is a question?
    Show answer
    Y (why).
  18. Which room do ghosts stay out of?
    Show answer
    The living room.
  19. What is at the end of a rainbow?
    Show answer
    The letter W.
  20. What word has kst in the middle, in at the beginning and and at the end?
    Show answer
    Inkstand.

Hard riddles for adults

15
  1. Poor people have it, rich people need it, and if you eat it you die. What is it?
    Show answer
    Nothing.
  2. The person who makes it sells it. The person who buys it never uses it. The person who uses it never knows. What is it?
    Show answer
    A coffin.
  3. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?
    Show answer
    An echo.
  4. What can be seen in the middle of March and April, but not at the beginning or end of either month?
    Show answer
    The letter R.
  5. The more of it there is, the less you see. What is it?
    Show answer
    Darkness.
  6. What can you keep after giving it to someone?
    Show answer
    Your word.
  7. I turn once, and what is out can't get in. I turn again, and what is in can't get out. What am I?
    Show answer
    A key.
  8. I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?
    Show answer
    A bank.
  9. I am not alive, but I grow. I don't have lungs, but I need air. I don't have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?
    Show answer
    Fire.
  10. What has roots nobody sees, is taller than trees, and goes up and up but never grows?
    Show answer
    A mountain.
  11. What is lighter than a feather, but even the strongest person can't hold it for more than a few minutes?
    Show answer
    Their breath.
  12. I have no life, but I can die. What am I?
    Show answer
    A battery.
  13. A farmer must get a fox, a chicken and a sack of corn across a river. His boat carries him and one thing. Left alone, the fox eats the chicken and the chicken eats the corn. How does he do it?
    Show answer
    Take the chicken over and go back. Take the fox over and bring the chicken back. Take the corn over and go back. Finally take the chicken over.
  14. You have two US coins that add up to 30 cents, and one of them is not a nickel. What are they?
    Show answer
    A quarter and a nickel. The quarter is the one that isn't a nickel.
  15. Three switches outside a closed room control three bulbs inside. You can flip the switches as much as you like, but you may only go in once. How do you find out which switch is which?
    Show answer
    Turn switch 1 on for a few minutes, then off. Turn switch 2 on and go in. The bulb that is on is switch 2, the warm one that is off is switch 1, and the cold one is switch 3.

Lateral thinking riddles

20

Situation puzzles: the answer is a story, not a word. Let the group ask yes or no questions until someone cracks it.

  1. A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he's bankrupt. Why?
    Show answer
    He's playing Monopoly.
  2. A woman shoots her husband, holds him under water for five minutes, then hangs him up. Twenty minutes later they go out for dinner. How?
    Show answer
    She is a photographer. She took his picture, developed it and hung it up to dry.
  3. A man walks into a bar and asks for a glass of water. The bartender pulls out a toy gun and points it at him. The man says thank you and leaves. Why?
    Show answer
    He had hiccups. The scare cured them, so he didn't need the water.
  4. A man lives on the tenth floor. Every morning he takes the lift down. Coming home, he takes it to the seventh floor and walks the rest, except on rainy days. Why?
    Show answer
    He is short and can only reach the button for the seventh floor. On rainy days he presses ten with his umbrella.
  5. A man was out in the pouring rain with no umbrella and no hat, but not a single hair on his head got wet. How?
    Show answer
    He is bald.
  6. Romeo and Juliet are found dead on the floor, surrounded by water and broken glass. What happened?
    Show answer
    They are goldfish. Their bowl was knocked off the table.
  7. A lorry is stuck under a low bridge. How do you get it out without damaging the bridge or the lorry?
    Show answer
    Let some air out of the tyres.
  8. A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays for three days and leaves on Friday. How?
    Show answer
    His horse is called Friday.
  9. How can someone go eight days without sleep?
    Show answer
    They sleep at night.
  10. A woman gives birth to two boys on the same day of the same year, but they are not twins. How?
    Show answer
    They are two of a set of triplets.
  11. What can go up a chimney down, but can't go down a chimney up?
    Show answer
    An umbrella.
  12. A man is on one side of a river and his dog is on the other. He calls, and the dog crosses without a bridge or a boat and doesn't get wet. How?
    Show answer
    The river is frozen.
  13. A woman falls off a 6 metre ladder and doesn't get hurt. How?
    Show answer
    She fell off the bottom step.
  14. Two people are born at the same moment, but they have different birthdays. How?
    Show answer
    They are born in different time zones, on either side of midnight.
  15. A man in a black car with no lights drives down a road with no streetlights. A woman in black crosses the road and he stops in time. How did he see her?
    Show answer
    It was daytime.
  16. What happened in 1961 and won't happen again until 6009?
    Show answer
    The year reads the same upside down.
  17. A mother has seven children. Half of them are boys. How is that possible?
    Show answer
    They are all boys. The other half are boys too.
  18. A man builds a house where all four walls face south. A bear walks past. What colour is the bear?
    Show answer
    White. The house is at the North Pole, so it's a polar bear.
  19. Which is right: "the yolk of the egg is white" or "the yolk of the egg are white"?
    Show answer
    Neither. Egg yolks are yellow.
  20. An electric train heads north at 100 km/h with the wind blowing west. Which way does the smoke go?
    Show answer
    There is no smoke. It's an electric train.

Dark riddles (but harmless)

15

A little morbid, nothing graphic. Good for a late round or a Halloween party.

  1. A man is found dead in a field with an unopened pack on his back. What happened?
    Show answer
    His parachute didn't open.
  2. A man drinks some punch at a party and leaves early. Everyone else who drank the punch was poisoned. Why wasn't he?
    Show answer
    The poison was in the ice cubes, which hadn't melted yet when he drank.
  3. A man is found dead in a room with 53 bicycles. What happened?
    Show answer
    The bicycles are Bicycle playing cards. He was caught cheating with a 53rd card.
  4. A man is found dead in the desert holding half a matchstick. What happened?
    Show answer
    He was in a sinking hot air balloon. The passengers drew matches to see who had to jump, and he drew the short one.
  5. A detective finds a man dead at his desk with a gun in his hand and a tape recorder. He presses play: "I can't go on", then a shot. The detective knows it was murder. How?
    Show answer
    The tape was rewound to the start. A dead man can't rewind a tape.
  6. Two people are found dead in a cabin in the woods. How did they die?
    Show answer
    It was the cabin of a plane that crashed.
  7. A man jumps out of a window of a 20 storey building, lands on concrete and walks away. How?
    Show answer
    He jumped out of a ground floor window.
  8. A prisoner must pick one of three rooms: one full of fire, one full of armed guards, and one full of lions that haven't eaten in three years. Which is safest?
    Show answer
    The lions. After three years without food, they're dead.
  9. A man dies of old age on his 25th birthday. How?
    Show answer
    He was born on 29 February, so he only had a birthday every four years.
  10. Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?
    Show answer
    He had no body to go with.
  11. What do you call a skeleton who won't work?
    Show answer
    Lazy bones.
  12. What is a vampire's favourite fruit?
    Show answer
    A nectarine (neck tarine).
  13. Why are graveyards so noisy?
    Show answer
    Because of all the coffin.
  14. Why don't mummies take holidays?
    Show answer
    They're afraid they'll relax and unwind.
  15. What is a ghost's favourite dessert?
    Show answer
    I scream.

How to play riddles as a party game

Riddles work best as a contest. Two formats that turn this list into a game for a dinner table or a pre-party:

  1. Split into two teamsOr play everyone for themselves with up to six players. One person, the riddle master, holds the phone.
  2. Draw a riddle and read it twiceUse the card above. Teams get 30 seconds for Classic, Short and Funny, and two minutes for Hard and Lateral thinking.
  3. Score itOne point for a right answer, two for Hard, and three for a lateral thinking puzzle. The first team to shout a wrong answer waits out the next riddle.
  4. Lateral thinking roundsFor situation puzzles, players ask yes or no questions and the riddle master only answers yes, no or doesn't matter. Cap it at 20 questions.
  5. Pass the riddle master roleWhoever wins a round becomes the next riddle master, so everyone gets to watch the others suffer.
GroupStart withThen try
Mixed group, people just metClassic, ShortFunny
Friends who like to argueLogicHard, Lateral thinking
Late at nightFunny, WordplayDark
Work party or team eventShort, ClassicLogic
Two of you on a long driveLateral thinkingHard

Think fast with the fuse burning

In Dronk's The Bomb, the phone shows a category, you say an answer and pass it on before the hidden fuse blows. 350 categories in 7 packs, and every round takes about a minute.

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What makes a good riddle for adults

A good riddle is fair: once you hear the answer, it is obvious, and you are annoyed you didn't see it. Every riddle on this page has one clear answer. Three things separate a riddle that lands from one that falls flat:

  • One answer only. If two answers fit, people argue about the riddle instead of laughing at it. We left out riddles with more than one fair answer.
  • A trick in the wording. The best ones hide the answer in plain sight: "what has a neck but no head" makes you think of bodies, not bottles.
  • Right length for the room. Short riddles work out loud with a drink in your hand. Long lateral thinking puzzles need a quieter table.

Questions people ask

What is a good riddle for adults?

One with a single clear answer and a trick in the wording, like "What gets wetter the more it dries?" (a towel) or "Poor people have it, rich people need it, and if you eat it you die" (nothing).

What is the hardest riddle?

Among well known riddles, the three light switches puzzle is one of the hardest: three switches, three bulbs in a closed room, one visit. The answer uses heat, not light. It is in the Hard group above.

What is a funny riddle for adults?

Try "What do you call a man with a spade on his head?" Doug. Without the spade, he's Douglas. The Funny and Wordplay groups have 40 more.

What are lateral thinking riddles?

Short stories with a strange situation, like a man who pushes his car to a hotel and goes bankrupt. Players ask yes or no questions until someone works out the story. (He is playing Monopoly.)

Can I print these riddles?

Yes. Press print at the top of the page for a clean sheet with every riddle and its answer.

How do you play riddles at a party?

Split into teams, let one person read riddles from the card, and give one point for easy riddles and two or three for hard ones. The winner of each round reads the next.

Keep the night going

Trivia questionsQuestions with answers for a quiz night.OpenThe QuizLive trivia with a pin code, up to 16 players.OpenHypothetical questionsWhat would you do if...OpenRandom questionsWeird and fun questions for any group.Open

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