Hard Riddles with Answers
Fair warning: some of these will sit in your head all day. These hard riddles run from tough to brutal. Give each one a real try before you peek at the answer.
Hard riddles with hints
Sixty of these 68 riddles carry a hint, so stuck never means stranded.
Classic hard riddles with answers
The more you take, the more you leave behind. If that one rings a bell, plenty of old legends are waiting here.
Hard riddles for adults and sharp teens
Wordplay like the queue riddle rewards a big vocabulary. Nothing here is inappropriate, just difficult.
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1. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Need a hint?
Think about walking on sand.
Show answer
Footsteps.
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2. I am not alive, but I grow. I have no lungs, but I need air. I have no mouth, and water kills me. What am I?
Need a hint?
I dance, crackle, and eat wood.
Show answer
Fire.
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3. What runs but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, and a bed but never sleeps?
Need a hint?
Follow me and I will lead you to the sea.
Show answer
A river.
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4. Read forward, I am something you do every day. Read backward, I am something truly bad. What am I?
Show answer
The word live. Backward it spells evil.
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5. What goes through a door without ever entering or leaving the room?
Show answer
A keyhole.
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6. Nobody wants me, yet once someone has me, they fight hard not to lose me. What am I?
Show answer
A lawsuit.
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7. Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. Whoever knows it, wants it not. What is it?
Need a hint?
It looks real until someone checks.
Show answer
Counterfeit money.
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8. I am taken from a mine and shut inside a wooden case from which I am never released, yet almost everyone has used me. What am I?
Need a hint?
You sharpen my house, not me.
Show answer
Pencil lead. Graphite comes from a mine and lives inside the wooden pencil.
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9. What breaks without ever falling, and what falls without ever breaking?
Need a hint?
It happens twice every 24 hours.
Show answer
Day breaks and night falls.
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10. A woman has seven children, and half of them are boys. How is that possible?
Show answer
All seven are boys, so half of them are boys too.
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11. Whole, I am a grain in the field. Remove my first letter and I warm your home. Remove another and you do me three times a day. What am I?
Show answer
Wheat. Then heat, then eat.
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12. I breathe without air and drink all day though I am never thirsty. I wear silver armor that makes no sound. What am I?
Need a hint?
Look under the surface.
Show answer
A fish.
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13. In marble walls as white as milk, lined with a skin as soft as silk, within a fountain crystal clear, a golden apple does appear. No doors are there to this stronghold, yet thieves break in and steal the gold. What is it?
Need a hint?
You crack this stronghold open at breakfast.
Show answer
An egg.
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14. Little Nancy Etticoat, in a white petticoat, and a red nose. The longer she stands, the shorter she grows. What is she?
Need a hint?
She glows while she shrinks.
Show answer
A candle. The red nose is the flame, and burning makes her shorter.
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15. White bird featherless flew from paradise, pitched on the castle wall. Along came Lord Landless, took it up handless, and rode away horseless to the king's white hall. What is it?
Need a hint?
It only visits in winter.
Show answer
A snowflake carried away by the sun. The featherless bird is snow, and Lord Landless is the sun that melts it.
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16. Two brothers we are, great burdens we bear, by which we are bitterly pressed. In truth we may say, we are full all the day, and empty when we go to rest. What are we?
Need a hint?
They carry you everywhere and rest when you do.
Show answer
A pair of shoes.
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17. As round as an apple, as deep as a cup, and all the king's horses cannot fill it up. What is it?
Need a hint?
You lower a bucket into it.
Show answer
A well.
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18. Take one out and scratch my head. I am now black, but once was red. What am I?
Need a hint?
I live in a small box and die after one job.
Show answer
A match. Striking it burns the red tip black.
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19. Round as a button, deep as a well. If you want me to talk, you must first pull my tail. What am I?
Need a hint?
You will find me in a church tower.
Show answer
A bell. Pulling the rope makes it ring.
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20. Riddle me, riddle me, what is that: over the head and under the hat?
Need a hint?
Some people lose it with age.
Show answer
Hair.
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21. I live in winter, die in summer, and grow with my root upward. What am I?
Need a hint?
I hang from the roof and drip when it warms.
Show answer
An icicle. It hangs from above, so its root points up.
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22. What goes around the house and in the house, but never touches the house?
Need a hint?
It visits every window during the day.
Show answer
The sun. Its light moves around and through the windows without touching anything.
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23. The land was white, the seed was black. It will take a good scholar to riddle me that. What is it?
Need a hint?
You are looking at some right now.
Show answer
Paper and ink. Writing is black seed sown on a white field.
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24. What can God never see, kings rarely see, and ordinary people see every day?
Need a hint?
It is not a thing but a kind of person.
Show answer
An equal.
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25. I never was, I am always to be, and no one has ever seen me, nor ever will. What am I?
Need a hint?
You keep chasing it, but it stays a day away.
Show answer
Tomorrow. Once it arrives, it is today.
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26. At night they come without being fetched, and by day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?
Need a hint?
Look up after sunset.
Show answer
The stars.
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27. There is a green house. Inside the green house there is a white house. Inside the white house there is a red house. Inside the red house there are lots of little black babies. What is it?
Need a hint?
You can eat every house except the first.
Show answer
A watermelon. Green rind, white inner rind, red flesh, black seeds.
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28. What force and strength cannot get through, I with a gentle touch can do, and many in the street would stand, were I not a friend at hand. What am I?
Need a hint?
Kicking the door will not work. I will.
Show answer
A key.
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29. I have only one color, but not one size. I am stuck at the bottom, yet I easily fly. I appear in the sun, but not in the rain. I do no harm and feel no pain. What am I?
Need a hint?
It copies everything you do.
Show answer
A shadow.
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30. I am the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place. What am I?
Need a hint?
Stop thinking about physics and look at the spelling.
Show answer
The letter E.
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31. What five letter word reads the same upside down as it does right side up?
Need a hint?
Think of something you do in a pool, then rotate it.
Show answer
SWIMS.
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32. I am in seasons, seconds, centuries, and minutes, but not in decades, years, or days. What am I?
Need a hint?
Check the spelling of each word.
Show answer
The letter N.
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33. What starts with the letter E, ends with the letter E, and contains only one letter?
Need a hint?
It contains a letter you can read.
Show answer
An envelope.
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34. I am a word of letters three. Add two more, and fewer there will be. What word am I?
Need a hint?
The answer is hiding inside the riddle itself.
Show answer
Few. Adding the letters E and R makes fewer.
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35. What English word keeps the same pronunciation even after you take away four of its five letters?
Need a hint?
People in Britain stand in one.
Show answer
Queue. Remove the last four letters and Q still sounds the same.
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36. What word contains 26 letters but only three syllables?
Need a hint?
It contains every letter you know, in a sense.
Show answer
Alphabet.
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37. Pick any whole number and multiply it by me. Add up the digits of your answer, and keep adding until one digit is left. That digit is always me. What number am I?
Need a hint?
Try it with 18, 27, and 36.
Show answer
Nine. The digits of every multiple of nine add up to nine in the end.
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38. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
Need a hint?
It is under ten.
Show answer
Seven. Remove the S and you get even.
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39. Using only addition, how can you add eight 8s together to get exactly 1000?
Need a hint?
You are allowed to glue the 8s together into bigger numbers.
Show answer
888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1000.
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40. A man is looking at a portrait. Someone asks whose picture it is, and he says: brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son. Who is in the portrait?
Need a hint?
Work out who my father's son must be first.
Show answer
His son. My father's son is the man himself, so the portrait shows his own son.
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41. Two fathers and two sons went fishing. They caught three fish, and each of them got a whole fish. How is that possible?
Need a hint?
Count the people, not the roles.
Show answer
There were only three people: a grandfather, his son, and his grandson. Two of them are fathers and two are sons.
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42. Eight of us march forward, never back, and we give up our lives to shield our king from attack. What are we?
Need a hint?
The battlefield has 64 squares.
Show answer
The pawns in a game of chess.
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43. I weigh nothing, and you can see me. But if you put me in a bucket, I make the bucket lighter. What am I?
Need a hint?
The bucket loses more than it gains.
Show answer
A hole.
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44. I am always old and sometimes new. Never sad, sometimes blue. Never empty, sometimes full. I never push, yet I always pull. What am I?
Show answer
The moon. It pulls the tides.
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45. What can go up a chimney down, but cannot go down a chimney up?
Need a hint?
Down here means closed.
Show answer
An umbrella. Closed, it fits up a chimney. Open, it fits nowhere.
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46. I have two bodies joined into one. The stiller I stand, the faster I run. What am I?
Show answer
An hourglass. The sand races while the glass stands still.
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47. What has four fingers and a thumb but is not alive?
Need a hint?
It goes everywhere your hand goes in winter.
Show answer
A glove.
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48. What has a neck but no head, and wears a cap?
Need a hint?
You twist the cap off before drinking.
Show answer
A bottle.
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49. I am full of holes, yet I still hold water. What am I?
Need a hint?
You will find me next to the kitchen sink.
Show answer
A sponge.
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50. Old Mother Twitchett had but one eye, and a long tail that she let fly. Every time she went through a gap, a bit of her tail she left in a trap. What is she?
Need a hint?
She works on clothes.
Show answer
A needle and thread. The eye is the needle's eye, and the tail is the thread left behind in each stitch.
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51. Ten men's strength, ten men's length, ten men cannot break it, yet a small boy walks away with it. What is it?
Need a hint?
Strong to pull apart, light to carry.
Show answer
A rope.
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52. A house full, a hole full, yet you cannot gather a bowl full. What is it?
Need a hint?
It rolls in on damp mornings.
Show answer
Fog or mist. It fills everything but cannot be scooped up.
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53. Black we are, but much admired. Men seek us if they are tired. We tire the horse but comfort man. Tell me this riddle if you can.
Need a hint?
It burns in the hearth.
Show answer
Coal. Heavy for the horse to haul, warming for the people at home.
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54. Long legs, crooked thighs, little head, and no eyes. What is it?
Need a hint?
You will find it standing by an old fireplace.
Show answer
A pair of fire tongs.
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55. Elizabeth, Elspeth, Betsy, and Bess all went together to seek a bird's nest. They found a nest with five eggs in it. Each took one egg, yet four eggs were left. How?
Need a hint?
Count the girls, not the names.
Show answer
They are all the same person. Elspeth, Betsy, and Bess are nicknames for Elizabeth, so one girl took one egg.
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56. Hick-a-more, hack-a-more, on the kitchen floor. All the horses and all the men could not drive hick-a-more, hack-a-more off the kitchen floor. What is it?
Need a hint?
It arrives through the window and leaves at dusk.
Show answer
Sunshine. No one can push a patch of sunlight away.
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57. Flour of England, fruit of Spain, met together in a shower of rain. Put in a bag and tied with a string. If you tell me this riddle, I will give you a ring. What is it?
Need a hint?
It shows up on Christmas tables.
Show answer
A plum pudding. Flour and dried fruit are mixed with liquid, then boiled in a cloth bag.
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58. I am bought by the yard, but worn out by the foot. What am I?
Need a hint?
It covers the floor.
Show answer
A carpet. Sold by the yard, walked on by feet.
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59. I have no teeth, yet I gnaw iron and grind mountains into sand. I take no steps, yet no one has ever outrun me. What am I?
Need a hint?
Everyone spends me, and no one can save me.
Show answer
Time.
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60. I began drumming before you were born, and I will keep the beat until your story ends. Nobody ever taught me. What am I?
Need a hint?
Rest a hand on your chest and wait.
Show answer
Your heart.
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61. I am as light as a feather, yet the strongest person cannot hold me for more than a few minutes. What am I?
Need a hint?
You are holding me right now, briefly.
Show answer
Breath.
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62. Whoever makes me does not announce me. Whoever takes me does not know it. Whoever knows me refuses to keep me. What am I?
Show answer
Counterfeit money.
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63. If you have me, you want to share me. Once you share me, you no longer have me. What am I?
Need a hint?
Telling it destroys it.
Show answer
A secret.
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64. You throw me away when you need me, and take me back in when you are done with me. What am I?
Need a hint?
Sailors do the throwing.
Show answer
An anchor.
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65. What is greater than God and more evil than the devil? The poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it, you die.
Need a hint?
The answer is not a thing at all.
Show answer
Nothing. Nothing is greater than God, nothing is more evil than the devil, the poor have nothing, the rich need nothing, and eating nothing kills you.
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66. No two of me in the world are quite the same. You give me away on paper time after time, yet I never stop being yours. What am I?
Need a hint?
It waits at the bottom of every letter you send.
Show answer
Your signature.
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67. A cloud was my mother, the wind is my father, my son is the cool stream, and my daughter is the fruit of the land. What am I?
Need a hint?
I fall, and everything grows.
Show answer
A raindrop. Rain is born of clouds, carried by wind, feeds streams, and grows the harvest.
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68. What flies forever and rests never?
Need a hint?
You feel it but never see it.
Show answer
The wind.
Your score
FAQ about Hard Riddles with Answers
How hard are these riddles really?
Expect to miss more than you solve on the first pass. The set runs from tough to brutal, and even strong solvers reach for the hints a few times.
Do hard riddles have answers included?
Yes. Every card reveals its full answer on tap, and many answers explain the reasoning so you see why it works, not just what it is.
Can kids try these hard riddles?
They can, since everything is family friendly. That said, the wordplay and logic suit teens and adults best. Younger kids will have more fun on our easier sets.
Need a breather between beatings? Our Tricky Riddles with Answers sting less but still bite. Or change how you think entirely with Lateral Thinking Puzzles.