30 Tricky Rebus Puzzles with Answers
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These tricky rebus puzzles stack two or three encoding tricks in one picture and are built to mislead you at least once. Expect mirrored words, ordinal arrows, ink colors that matter and gaps that speak. Every card still carries hints and a full answer with the decoding explained, so a wrong turn costs you nothing but pride.
Print these 30 tricky rebus puzzles with answers
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Tricky rebus puzzles with misdirection
The obvious reading is usually the trap. Slow down and say exactly what you see.
Expert rebus conventions
Mirrors, ordinal arrows, meaningful colors and deliberate blanks: the rare tricks live here.
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1. Say what you see.
Need a hint?
One word is printed in reverse: say what that reversal means and put it in front.
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Backseat driver. SEAT written backwards is a back-SEAT, followed by DRIVER: backseat driver.
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2. Say what you see.
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Nothing is misspelled: the card's orientation is the entire message.
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The tables have turned. The word TABLES is printed upside down: the tables have (been) turned.
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3. Say what you see.
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The ink color of the second word belongs in the middle of the answer.
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Caught red-handed. CAUGHT plus HANDED printed in red ink: caught red-handed.
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4. Say what you see.
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Each strikethrough reads as a tiny word of denial in front of the word it crosses.
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No pain, no gain. Both PAIN and GAIN are crossed out: no pain, no gain.
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5. Say what you see.
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Watch what the letter sizes are doing, then name the flower they spell.
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Shrinking violet. The word VIOLET printed with letters getting smaller: a shrinking violet.
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6. Say what you see.
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The direction the text reads is the first word of the answer.
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Up the ante. THE ANTE printed reading upward: up the ante.
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7. Say what you see.
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The word is printed as if in a mirror: describe how it's written, then read it.
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Backpedal. PEDAL is mirrored, i.e. written backwards: back + pedal = backpedal.
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8. Say what you see.
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The two crossed letters spell a little word: and being crossed off is exactly what is happening to them.
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Cut it out. The letters I and T are slashed out of EDITOR: IT is being cut out: cut it out.
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9. Say what you see.
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First say which way the phrase travels, then read the phrase itself.
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Down in the dumps. The phrase IN THE DUMPS is rotated to read downward: down in the dumps.
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10. Say what you see.
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Reading it as a new word is the trap: instead, describe what has been done to the word, then say the word.
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Turn back time. TIME is printed in reverse: it has been turned back: turn back time; the mirror reading EMIT is the decoy.
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11. Say what you see.
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Read the two words left to right first, and only then describe the size of the second one.
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Long story short. LONG beside a tiny STORY reads in order as long, story, short: long story short.
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12. Say what you see.
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That empty spot at the front is doing the real work: a blank amounts to what?
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Nothing to see here. An empty space sits where a word should be, followed by TO SEE HERE: nothing to see here.
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13. Say what you see.
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The line through the first word negates it: voice that negation, then keep reading.
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No laughing matter. LAUGHING is struck through: no laughing: followed by MATTER: no laughing matter.
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14. Say what you see.
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The line through the small word is an action, say the action first. The golden ink is pure distraction.
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Strike it rich. IT is struck through, so you read the action as a word: strike IT, then RICH follows, strike it rich. The gold ink is only a decoy.
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15. Say what you see.
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The second copy is a reflection of the first. Name the object that makes reflections, then read the word.
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Mirror image. IMAGE stands beside its own reversed reflection, exactly what a mirror does to it: mirror image. The duplicate tempts you toward double or twin readings.
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16. Say what you see.
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Watch how the letter size changes across the word. The green ink is a red herring.
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A growing concern. The letters of CONCERN grow from left to right, a growing concern. The green ink nudges you toward plants and envy, but it means nothing.
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17. Say what you see.
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Read the direction the word travels first, then the word itself. Ignore how huge it is printed.
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Downsize. SIZE is rotated so it reads downward: down plus SIZE makes downsize. The giant print pushes you toward big or plus size, a decoy.
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18. Say what you see.
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The line through the word is a verb, say what that line does to a subscription. The slant means nothing.
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Cancel culture. CULTURE is struck through, and striking something out cancels it: cancel culture. The leftward slant is a planted decoy.
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19. Say what you see.
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The letters shrink from left to right, and that shrinking has a fancier name. The red ink is a trap.
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Diminishing returns. The letters of RETURNS get smaller and smaller, they are diminishing: diminishing returns. The red ink baits you toward being in the red.
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20. Say what you see.
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Read the printed words first, then let the ink color finish the phrase.
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In the red. The phrase IN THE is printed in red ink, so it reads as the money idiom in the red.
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21. Say what you see.
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Say the ink color out loud first, then read the printed words.
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Green with envy. WITH ENVY is printed in green ink, and reading the color first gives green with envy.
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22. Say what you see.
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The repetition is a decoy, the arrow tells you which position matters.
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Second fiddle. The arrow points at the second of three FIDDLEs, giving the idiom second fiddle.
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23. Say what you see.
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Count the copies in reading order, up to the one the arrow singles out.
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Sixth sense. The arrow picks out the sixth of six copies of SENSE, so it reads sixth sense.
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24. Say what you see.
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A word should be printed in that empty spot, say what happened to it.
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Missing the point. A blank space stands where a word should be, right before THE POINT, so the word is missing the point.
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25. Say what you see.
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Name what occupies the empty space, then say where it sits.
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Nothing on TV. An empty space sits directly on top of TV, so there is nothing on TV.
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26. Say what you see.
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Read the small word first, say where it sits, and let the ink color speak too.
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Once in a blue moon. The small word ONCE sits inside a blue MOON: once in a blue moon.
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27. Say what you see.
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Two tricks stacked on one word: it has been rotated, and it has been crossed out. Say both.
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Turn a blind eye. The word EYE is crossed out (blind) and rotated on its side (turned): turn a blind eye.
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28. Say what you see.
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Note which word is on top, and the bottom word is tipping as if its contents went everywhere.
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Cry over spilled milk. CRY sits over a tilted, spilling MILK: cry over spilled milk.
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29. Read it out loud.
Need a hint?
Read all four characters by name, the two letters, the number, then the last letter, and let them blend.
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Aviator. A ('ay'), V ('vee'), 8 ('eight'), R ('ar') said in a chain sounds like AVIATOR.
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30. Read it out loud.
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Letter, number, letter: say the three names in a row and they fuse into one adjective.
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Intense. N ('en'), 10 ('ten'), S ('ess') said together sounds like INTENSE.
Your score
FAQ about 30 Tricky Rebus Puzzles with Answers
What makes a rebus puzzle tricky?
Stacked tricks and misdirection. Two or three conventions combine in one picture, and one plausible reading is planted to lead you astray.
How do I solve the hardest rebus puzzles?
Name every visual fact out loud: position, size, direction, count and color. The answer uses all of them, the decoy usually ignores one.
Do these puzzles include answers?
Yes. Every card has hints you can buy with stars and a full answer that spells out the decoding.
If these tricky ones got your brain firing, step it up with our hardest rebus puzzles for real challengers, or head back to the full rebus puzzle hub to keep decoding fresh picture riddles all day.