Spring Riddles
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Spring riddles for kids and adults, all about rain, mud, bees and things waking up. These springtime riddles with answers work for classrooms, car rides and rainy afternoons. Hints are there when the little ones need a nudge.
Spring riddles pile up ordinary details, then twist the spring vocabulary
Ninety six cards sit on this page, and forty four of them pile up ordinary details about one spring object: what it does after the rain, who is glad to see it, what it looks like it is wearing. Start with the strangest detail rather than the most familiar one. A pond mirrors the sky as well as a puddle does, so on that card the detail worth your attention is the one about arriving with the shower.
Two of the baby animal cards ask for a word rather than for the animal itself: the noun English reserves for a young cow, and the noun for a young frog that still has its tail. A third asks which stage of a frog's life comes first. Work out which of these a card is after before you answer, because a picture in your head is no help when the answer is a term.
Sixteen of the Hard cards work another way. The season supplies the vocabulary and the joke bends it: a month becomes a verb, a bird name becomes a machine, a garden word becomes slang for a friend. Say those ones out loud, because the ear catches what the eye slides past. The Easter riddles run the same trick over a holiday vocabulary instead.
- Riddle 1: most people say A well. Water bubbling up out of the ground does describe a well, which is why it arrives. No well is a bouncy metal coil and no well is a season, so the card is after the one word that all three descriptions happen to share.
- Riddle 13: most people say A snail. A snail crawls onto the sidewalk after a shower too, and it also leaves the soil behind. The line about early birds being the biggest fans settles it, because the old proverb pairs that bird with something long and legless.
- Riddle 75: most people say A stork. A stork is long necked, wades, and turns up in the old story about delivering babies, so it feels like the fit. Steel beams lifted above a building site belong to a machine, and only one bird lent its name to that machine.
- Riddle 86: most people say A robin's egg. A robin's egg is a genuine spring egg, and rabbits certainly do not lay those either. Children searching the whole yard for bright colors rules it out, since nobody paints a wild bird's egg and hides it on the lawn.
Ask what a card is really after, the object, the word for it, or the joke inside the word, and answer that.
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1. I am a season, a bouncy metal coil, and a place where fresh water bubbles out of the ground. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A well
Need a hint?
One word, three meanings.
Show answer
Spring.
Which of the three does the sentence want, the season, the coil, or the water rising out of the ground? None alone: what is wanted is the label all three happen to wear, which is why naming a well falls short.
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2. I fall all spring long, but I never get hurt. Flowers cheer every time I show up. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: Spring snow
Show answer
Rain.
Read fall as tripping over and never get hurt turns into a boast about being tough. Read it as dropping out of a cloud and the line is weather again, which snow manages too, though no flower ever cheers for snow.
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3. You bury me alive in the dirt, and a few weeks later I come back to life as a flower. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A flower bulb
Need a hint?
Gardeners plant me in rows.
Show answer
A seed.
Nothing down there is actually dead, which is what makes buried alive and coming back sound like a contradiction. A bulb rests in the same dirt, yet it goes in already plump with next spring's bloom packed inside.
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4. Finish the famous spring saying: April showers bring... Easy
Show answer
May flowers
The saying rhymes showers with flowers, and the ear gets there before the meaning does. June bugs, March winds and mud puddles are all real enough, and not one of them chimes with showers.
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5. I only show up when the sun and the rain work together, and I wear seven colors at once. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A sunset
Show answer
A rainbow.
Two conditions have to hold in the same minute, and the second is the one that cuts. An evening sky brings color without any rain, so it is the water falling at the same time as the sunlight that leaves one answer.
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6. I spend weeks wrapped in a sleeping bag I made myself, and I wake up with wings. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A caterpillar
Need a hint?
Before my nap, I was very hungry and very fuzzy.
Show answer
A butterfly.
Stop at the sleeping bag and you name the caterpillar. One life runs from weeks of waiting through to wings, and the name wanted here sits at the far end of that run.
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7. I open like a flower when the rain starts falling, but I am not a plant. I keep you dry, then I nap by the door. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A raincoat
Show answer
An umbrella.
Ribs push a canopy outward from a stick until it stands like a dome over your head, then fold flat again against the wall. A raincoat keeps rain off just as well and never makes any shape but your own.
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8. In the northern half of the world, spring officially begins in which month? Easy
Most people first say: Early April
Show answer
March
The calendar takes its cue from the sky rather than from the thermometer. Daylight and darkness come out close to even around the twentieth, and that moment opens the season weeks before anybody feels warm enough to believe it.
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9. I hum from flower to flower all day, packing yellow dust on my legs, and my whole family works for a queen. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A wasp
Show answer
A bee.
Stiff hairs on the hind legs fringe a smooth dip that holds a load of yellow grains, and that piece of equipment is what packs food back to a hive. A wasp works the same blossoms with bare legs.
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10. I am a house built of twigs and mud, high up in a tree, with no door and no roof. Soon there will be singing inside me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A beehive
Show answer
A bird's nest.
No door and no roof knocks out almost every building at once, since a beehive has walls and an entrance both. What is left is an open cup, woven from twigs the builder found lying about and left wide to the sky.
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11. Count the raindrops in this spring shower. Easy
Show answer
Seven. Five drops in the middle band and two more falling lower down.
Count the band across the middle first, then the two sitting lower down, because an eye sweeping left to right along the band skips the pair that fell out of it. Two batches keep the total honest.
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12. I dance in the sky at the end of a long string, and a windy spring day is my favorite kind of day. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A balloon
Show answer
A kite.
A balloon also bobs at the end of a string, and the weather line is where that reach comes apart, because wind is not scenery here but the reason this one is up in the air at all.
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13. Every time it rains, I sneak out of the soil and stretch out on the sidewalk. Early birds are my biggest fans. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A snail
Need a hint?
Robins hunt for me after a shower.
Show answer
A worm.
An old proverb about the early bird catching its breakfast is being taken at face value, with the bird's breakfast turned into a fan club. A snail crawls out after the same shower, yet no saying ever handed it to a robin.
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14. 🐉 + 🪰 Easy
Need a hint?
It zips over spring ponds on four glassy wings.
Show answer
Dragonfly (dragon + fly).
Call the second picture a bug or an insect and the join never happens. Give it the shorter label instead and it clips straight onto the beast beside it, producing one pond skimmer with four glassy wings.
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15. I started life as a swimmer with a tail. Then I grew legs, lost the tail, and learned to sing at the pond. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A tadpole
Need a hint?
I used to be a tadpole.
Show answer
A frog.
The riddle starts its account at the swimming stage, not at the egg. A tadpole covers the tail and even the first legs, but never the voice at the pond, so the singer at the end is the one named.
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16. I pecked my way out of my round white house, and now I follow my mother everywhere, peeping. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A duckling
Show answer
A chick.
Which newborn is it, when peeping and trailing a mother fit the whole farmyard? Only the shell narrows anything, and a duck lays a noticeably bigger, longer egg than the small round one described here.
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17. Which comes FIRST in a frog's life? Medium
Show answer
Egg
Tadpole is the stage people store as the beginning, and the printed choices include one that comes before any swimming. Froglet and full-grown frog both sit later still, so the count starts at the egg.
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18. I am one of spring's first babies, I bounce around the meadow, and my coat becomes sweaters. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A calf
Show answer
A lamb.
Fleece gets clipped once a year, spun into yarn and knitted, which is the whole journey from animal to sweater. Calves arrive in the same weeks of the year and grow hair nobody has ever tried to knit.
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19. After the rain, I lie on the ground like a little mirror for the sky. Kids in rubber boots cannot resist me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A pond
Show answer
A puddle.
How long has this water been lying there? A pond sat in that spot yesterday and will sit there next year, while a sheet thin enough for boots to stamp through shows up with the shower and dries by afternoon.
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20. Spring is baby animal season. What do you call a baby cow? Easy
Show answer
A calf
English keeps a separate noun for each farm youngster, and this one doubles as the name of the muscle at the back of your lower leg. Holding on to that odd overlap makes the word hard to lose.
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21. You cannot see me, but in spring you can watch me fly kites, shake blossoms loose, and steal hats. What am I? Easy
Show answer
The wind.
Invisible and watchable at the same moment is the knot to untie, and no solid object manages both, which leaves moving air, visible only in the kites, blossoms and hats it shoves about.
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22. What kind of flower grows right under your nose? Easy
Most people first say: The rose
Need a hint?
Say the flower's name slowly.
Show answer
Tulips. Two lips.
Say the flower name aloud and let it break at the seam, because the two everyday words that fall out name the part of your face below your nose. A rose fits the garden half and nothing else.
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23. I wear a bright yellow trumpet on my head, and I am one of the first flowers to announce that spring has arrived. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A dandelion
Show answer
A daffodil.
A dandelion is yellow too, but it opens flat as a disc close to the ground. A raised cup with a frilled rim, nodding at the top of a tall bare stem, is a different plant altogether.
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24. In the old weather saying, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a... Easy
Show answer
Lamb
In like a lion, out like a lamb: wild weather early in March, gentle weather by the end.
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25. I am invisible yellow dust that rides the spring breeze. Flowers love me, but noses sneeze at me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: Flower nectar
Need a hint?
Achoo!
Show answer
Pollen.
Sneezing needs grains dry and light enough to drift on moving air and land in a nose. Nectar leaves the same blossoms as a sticky liquid that no breeze anywhere can lift off the flower.
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26. I wear a shiny red coat with black polka dots, and gardeners are always happy to see me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A firefly
Show answer
A ladybug.
The markings do the eliminating. A firefly is known for the light it makes after dark, while this card offers only daytime color: a red coat, black dots, nothing that glows.
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27. 🔵 + 🔔 Medium
Need a hint?
In spring this flower can turn a whole forest floor one color.
Show answer
Bluebell (blue + bell).
Name the circle a dot and the hand bell a chime, and nothing joins. Read each at its plainest and the two words glue into the name of a woodland flower, which is nowhere near a bird or a doorway fitting.
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28. My red chest hops across the lawn in early spring, and people say I am the season's first messenger. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A cardinal
Show answer
A robin.
Red chest is a narrower clue than red bird. The sentence colors one patch and stops there, so an answer that would be red from head to tail overshoots what was actually described.
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29. I look like a long green snake sleeping in the garden, but squeeze my handle and I spit water. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A garden snake
Show answer
A garden hose.
No snake comes with a handle, and that single missing part is what settles the shape and the color both. Squeeze a grip and water arrives, so the coil asleep in the garden turns out to be rubber.
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30. One of these four flowers is different. Which one? Easy
Show answer
The third one. The third flower has only three petals. The rest have four.
Work around each bloom one petal at a time, because the eye lands on the middle blob and the overall size and calls them all the same. Petal count is the single thing that varies here.
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31. Rain plus dirt equals me. Kids adore me, washing machines fear me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: Wet clay
Show answer
Mud.
Picture the laundry basket at the end of the day, because that line is the one that sorts this out. Clay is also dirt plus water, yet it goes to a potter's wheel and never gets tracked indoors by the bucketful.
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32. I am a tiny green baby plant, poking my head out of the soil to check if winter is really over. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A seed
Show answer
A sprout.
A seed sits one step earlier in the same story and has no green on it to poke with. Once a head breaks the surface the description has moved on to the shoot, a later stage of the very same plant.
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33. What do bees collect from spring flowers to make honey? Medium
Show answer
Nectar
Most people answer pollen only, since that is the dust they can see riding on a bee. The word honey rules it out: honey is thickened from sweet liquid, and the powder travels as separate cargo.
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34. When do monkeys fall from the sky? Medium
Need a hint?
It is a groaner about a spring month.
Show answer
During Ape-ril showers.
Stretch the opening sound of the month name and an animal word falls out of it. Monkeys drop from nothing, so the whole joke exists to hand the showers over to apes instead of to a calendar.
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35. We are twin boots that spend all winter bored in the closet, waiting for puddle season. What are we? Easy
Most people first say: Snow boots
Show answer
Rain boots.
Puddle season is the phrase to read closely: it names a stretch of the year by what lies on the ground. Snow boots are named for the covering this pair waits out, which is why those are the boots working while these sit idle.
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36. I sleep through the whole winter in a cozy den, and in spring I wake up grumpy and very, very hungry. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A squirrel
Need a hint?
My long nap is called hibernation.
Show answer
A bear.
The den and the long sleep do the narrowing, and waking up starved is what follows a winter spent in there without a meal. Tree squirrels stay busy through the cold months, digging up the nuts they buried.
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37. What do you call a baby frog that still has its tail and lives in the water? Easy
Show answer
A tadpole
Two facts have to sit together: the animal is something else before it is a frog, and English gives that swimming stage a name of its own, which is why pollywog is accepted here as well.
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38. For two weeks in spring I turn whole trees into pink popcorn, and then I snow petals all over the street. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A cherry tree
Show answer
Cherry blossom.
Two weeks and then petals on the pavement is a life span, and the cherry tree itself stands in that spot all twelve months of the year. What lasts a fortnight is the pink, so the pink is what is being described.
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39. I roar all Saturday morning, I eat grass but I am not a cow, and I leave stripes on the lawn. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A goat
Show answer
A lawn mower.
Roar and eat are animal verbs lent to a machine, which is what makes a goat tempting for a moment. Nothing with hooves leaves neat parallel stripes behind, and nothing with hooves gets wheeled out on a Saturday.
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40. What kind of bow can never, ever be tied? Medium
Show answer
A rainbow
Bow is doing more than one job here. A ribbon knot and a violin stick are things a hand can pick up, while the arc after rain is made of light, so there is nothing for fingers to knot.
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41. I carry my whole house on my back, I come out to glide across the sidewalk after every spring rain, and I leave a shiny silver trail behind me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A slug
Show answer
A snail.
A spiral shell riding on the back is the one thing a slug has never owned, though the silver trail and the sidewalk trip after rain fit both animals equally well.
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42. Before the sun wakes up, I quietly cover the spring grass in tiny sparkling beads. By breakfast time I have completely vanished. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: Morning frost
Show answer
Dew.
Shape is the cut on this card. The covering arrives as separate rounded drops of water, while frost lands as white crystals that would have to melt before they ever looked like one.
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43. I am a tight little green package sitting on a branch, and after a few warm spring days I will burst wide open into a flower. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A leaf
Show answer
A bud.
A leaf is not wrapped around anything, so the tight package wording throws it out at once. What sits on that twig is a flower folded down small, petals stacked inside a case built to split open in the warmth.
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44. I have a long curved spout and a handle, I drink my fill from the tap, and then I give the thirsty flowers a gentle indoor shower. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A teapot
Show answer
A watering can.
Where does the water end up? Filling at the tap and then raining gently over a flower bed is nothing a teapot has ever been asked to do, even though the spout and the handle look the same on both.
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45. On the first really warm day of spring I spin in circles on the lawn, flinging water everywhere, and giggling kids in swimsuits chase me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A garden hose
Show answer
A sprinkler.
Water pressure alone drives the head around with nobody holding it or aiming it, while a hose needs a person on the other end pointing it somewhere.
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46. I have long ears and a fluffy cotton tail, I hop through the spring meadow in big bounces, and I nibble the fresh green clover. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A hare
Show answer
A rabbit.
That white puff ended up inside one animal's own name, which is the detail worth leaning on. Hares carry longer ears and longer legs and never picked up the cotton label, though clover and big bounces suit them just as well.
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47. I am a fuzzy yellow baby who waddles behind my mother down to the spring pond, and today I get to paddle in the water for the very first time. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A chick
Show answer
A duckling.
Fuzz, a mother to follow and a yellow coat fit several farmyard babies at once, so the pond is the line. This one is promised a first paddle, and a chick keeps to the yard.
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48. I rumble and flash across the spring sky and pour down heavy rain, but when I finally move along I leave the whole world smelling fresh and clean. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A rain shower
Show answer
A thunderstorm.
Three things arrive together in that sentence: heavy water, a rumble and a flash. A plain shower brings the first on its own and stays quiet, so the sound and the light are what lift this one past it.
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49. I am a small cup-shaped flower, sometimes purple and sometimes yellow, and I am brave enough to bloom while the last patches of snow are still melting. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A snowdrop
Need a hint?
Both flowers beat the snow, but only one stands upright.
Show answer
A crocus.
Picture the two flowers side by side in the melting patches: one holds a cup upright in purple or yellow, the other hangs a small white head down toward the ground. Bravery in snow belongs to both of them.
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50. I have a long wooden handle and a row of springy teeth, and in spring I comb across the yard to gather up old leaves and dead grass. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A broom
Show answer
A rake.
Gaps between the teeth let loose soil fall straight through while dead grass and leaves catch and drag behind, where a broom presents a solid edge and pushes the soil along with everything else.
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51. Hand me to the spring breeze or blow on me yourself, and my bright paper blades will spin round and round on top of my stick. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A windmill
Show answer
A pinwheel.
Paper blades and a stick your own breath can turn keep this at hand size from the first word. The farm machine that the same shape brings to mind is built at the scale of a building instead.
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52. I am a cheerful yellow weed that later turns into a soft white puff. Make a wish, give me a puff of breath, and my seeds float away on the wind. What am I? Easy
Show answer
A dandelion.
Two moments in one plant's year are stacked here, which trips anybody hunting for a single flower. The wish puff is the same yellow head weeks later, dried out, with every seed grown its own little parachute.
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53. After a warm spring rain I pop up overnight in the damp shady woods, standing quietly under my own little umbrella cap. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A fern
Show answer
A mushroom.
Damp shade in the woods describes a fern just as well, so the setting keeps it in play. What splits them is the single lid held overhead, since the card offers one umbrella cap and no leaves anywhere.
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54. As spring arrives we fly north in a big noisy V shape, honking the whole way back to our summer home by the lake. What are we? Easy
Most people first say: Migrating ducks
Show answer
Geese.
Honking is the one clue the ducks cannot borrow, since a quack sounds nothing like that two note blare. Ducks line up behind a leader on the same journey north, so the tidy V overhead settles nothing at all.
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55. I am a tiny bird that hovers in the air like a little helicopter, sipping sweet nectar from spring flowers while my wings buzz in a blur. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A small finch
Show answer
A hummingbird.
Hovering is the pivot. Most small birds have to land on something before they can eat, so one that holds its place in mid air at a blossom and feeds there has already narrowed the field to a handful.
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56. Each spring day I stay up in the sky a little longer, I warm the cold soil, and I gently coax the sleepy seeds and buds to wake up. What am I? Easy
Show answer
The sun.
Coax and sleepy dress the source in manners, as though something were persuading a garden awake. Take the manners away and two plain facts remain: it lingers overhead longer, and it heats the ground.
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57. I am a spring baby with long wobbly legs, yet within an hour of being born I can stand up and trot beside my mother across the field. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A calf
Show answer
A foal.
Long is doing more work than wobbly. Unsteady legs fit most spring babies, while legs out of proportion to the body, already trotting beside a mother across open field, put this one in a paddock.
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58. I wear a reddish coat sprinkled with white spots so I can hide in the tall spring meadow, and I hold very still while my mother grazes nearby. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A bunny
Show answer
A fawn.
White spots on a reddish coat are the cut, and they are there for hiding rather than for show. Holding still in tall grass while a mother feeds close by works for more than one meadow baby, so the spots carry it.
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59. I am a fuzzy spring baby, a close cousin of the duckling, and when I grow up I will fly north in a honking V. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A duckling
Show answer
A gosling.
The cousin gets named out loud in the question, so it cannot also be the answer. A honking V sits in the future tense at the end, and the honk is the part no duckling ever grows into.
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60. I am a pink spring baby with a curly little tail and a flat snout, and I love nothing more than rolling around in the fresh mud. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A lamb
Show answer
A piglet.
A flat snout paired with a corkscrew tail belongs to exactly one barnyard newborn. Mud narrows far less, since a wet spring field leaves a mark on whatever walks across it.
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61. Farmers call me a kid, but I am covered in fur instead of clothes, and I love to hop and clatter across the rocks. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A human child
Show answer
A baby goat.
Kid meant a young goat for centuries before anybody used it for a young person, and farmers kept the older sense. Fur where clothes ought to be blocks the human reading in the very next clause.
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62. I am a fuzzy little creature that munches through leaves all spring long, and one day I will wrap myself up and change completely. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A butterfly
Show answer
A caterpillar.
The wrapping has not happened yet, and the sentence says so in the future tense. Anyone answering with the winged form has jumped two stages ahead of a creature that is still working through a pile of leaves.
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63. I am a little house made almost entirely of glass, and inside me flowers and vegetables enjoy warm summer weather even while it is still chilly outdoors. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A garden shed
Show answer
A greenhouse.
Glass is the clue that cuts. Sunlight passes straight through a wall you can see through and warms the air on the other side, which is not something solid boards do.
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64. I have one wheel at the front and two handles at the back, and each spring I carry heavy loads of soil and mulch around the garden for you. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A garden cart
Show answer
A wheelbarrow.
One wheel at the front is what the other haulers cannot match, with the load riding on a single point of contact and your arms at the back supplying the balance. Soil and mulch by themselves fit anything with a tray.
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65. I am a small shovel that fits in one hand, and a gardener uses me to scoop out little holes for planting spring bulbs and seedlings. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A garden spade
Show answer
A trowel.
Picture the gardener down on both knees beside the bed, working within arm's reach. A blade that fits a palm stays there with them, while a spade puts a long handle between the digger and the hole.
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66. I am a shallow stone bowl on a stand in the garden, and on warm spring days birds flutter down to splash and cool off in me. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A stone fountain
Show answer
A bird bath.
Shallow is the pivot, and no spout, pump or falling water appears on the card. A fountain earns its name from water in motion, so a still basin deep enough only for standing rules it out.
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67. On a breezy spring afternoon a child dips a wand, blows gently, and sends dozens of us floating shiny and round across the yard until we pop. What are we? Medium
Most people first say: Party balloons
Show answer
Bubbles.
One wand and one breath put dozens of these into the air, which no balloon can do, each balloon needing its own lungful and a knot. They last a few seconds before the skin of soap and air lets go.
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68. I am a tall pole strung with long colorful ribbons, and at spring festivals children dance in circles around me, weaving the ribbons as they go. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A flagpole
Show answer
A maypole.
Weaving is the verb doing the work here. Ribbons carried in circles by dancing children turn the pole into a piece of game equipment, and nothing ever gets woven around a flagpole.
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69. At winter's end people watch to see whether I climb out of my burrow and notice my own shadow, because folklore says I can hint at when spring will arrive. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A mole
Show answer
A groundhog.
A custom is the whole clue: one American town built a February ceremony around one burrowing animal and its shadow. Moles and gophers dig just as busily and no crowd has ever gathered to watch either of them.
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70. I am a leafy bush that bursts into clusters of tiny purple blossoms each spring, and my sweet perfume can fill a whole backyard. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A rose bush
Show answer
A lilac.
Look at the blossom rather than the scent, because a rose smells sweet enough to stay in the running. Dozens of tiny florets packed into a cone on a woody stem is a shape no rose ever makes.
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71. I share my name with the colored ring around the pupil of your eye, and I am also a tall spring flower with velvety purple petals. What am I? Medium
Most people first say: A pansy
Show answer
An iris.
A pansy is the reach for purple and velvet, yet nothing in that name touches an eye. The question hands you a shortcut: look for a bloom whose name you already use for a body part, and skip the petal hunt.
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72. What do you call the kind of soggy spring day when it seems to be raining chickens and ducks? Hard
Most people first say: A heavy downpour
Need a hint?
The bird word and the grumpy word sound alike.
Show answer
Fowl weather.
Fowl is the collective word for chickens and ducks and it sounds exactly like the word people use for nasty weather, which is what lets the bird term stand in for the complaint.
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73. What is a scarecrow's favorite spring fruit to grow out in the garden? Hard
Most people first say: Corn on the cob
Need a hint?
Check what a scarecrow is stuffed with.
Show answer
Strawberries.
Straw is the material a scarecrow is packed with, and one fruit name opens with that exact syllable. Corn is the crop being guarded, which is the pull, but the pun needs the stuffing.
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74. What do you call two young flowers that have been inseparable friends ever since they first sprouted? Hard
Need a hint?
Gardeners and close friends share one short word.
Show answer
Best buds.
Two senses of one short word have to land at the same time: the swelling on a stem and the friend you call a bud. The sprouting picture keeps the slang out of sight until the phrase gets said aloud.
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75. Which tall long-necked bird might you also spot lifting heavy steel beams high above a building site? Hard
Most people first say: A stork
Need a hint?
Origami folds one of these out of paper.
Show answer
A crane.
The stork gets the picture right and the name wrong. One word here covers both a bird and a machine that lifts steel beams, so looking the part leaves the second job unfilled.
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76. What does a bee say when it buzzes back to the hive after a long day working the spring flowers? Hard
Need a hint?
A sitcom greeting works because bees make it.
Show answer
Honey, I'm home.
The shout at a front door in an old sitcom gets handed to an insect, and it works because what the hive spends all day storing doubles as the pet name in that phrase.
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77. Why is nearly everyone worn out and footsore by the time the first of April rolls around? Hard
Most people first say: Spring cleaning
Need a hint?
Which month just ended, and what else means walking?
Show answer
They just finished a long March.
Read March as a month and sore feet make no sense at all. Read it as walking in step for miles and the whole complaint lines up, which is why spring cleaning feels tempting and lands wide.
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78. What does a stylish rabbit reach for to keep its fur neat and tidy on a windy spring day? Hard
Most people first say: A comb
Need a hint?
Say the rabbit's long eared cousin out loud.
Show answer
Hare spray.
The pun runs on sound, not on species. Hare and hair land on the ear the same way, so the rabbit's long eared relative can stand in for the first half of a familiar bottle off the shelf.
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79. Why did the gardener finally give up on the vegetable patch and quit? Hard
Most people first say: Nothing would grow
Need a hint?
Swap the vegetable for a word about pay.
Show answer
The celery just was not high enough.
Hear celery as the word for wages and the sentence turns into an ordinary complaint about pay. Height then stands in for the size of a paycheck, and a failed crop stops being the reason anybody walked off.
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80. How do the bare trees quietly promise to make a fresh start every single spring? Hard
Most people first say: They branch out
Need a hint?
A book has these too, and you turn them.
Show answer
They turn over a new leaf.
Read the promise as plain words and bare branches really do put out new leaves every year, which is the whole trick. Branching out means widening instead, so it slides past what the trees are actually saying.
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81. Millions of my three-leaf cousins carpet the spring lawn, but stumbling on just one of me is considered a rare stroke of luck. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A shamrock
Need a hint?
Count the leaflets before you name it.
Show answer
A four-leaf clover.
Count the leaflets before naming anything. Millions of three leaf plants carpet the lawn and one extra leaflet is the whole difference, which is why the Irish emblem sits so close and still misses.
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82. I am a little green three-leaf plant worn on the seventeenth of March, and I am the beloved symbol of Ireland. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A four-leaf clover
Need a hint?
The Irish name for it means little clover.
Show answer
A shamrock.
A date and a national emblem are the two facts on offer, and the leaf count is the third. Three leaves worn for Ireland on the seventeenth of March narrows the field to one plant.
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83. My name sounds like the coldest part of winter, yet I am actually a tiny white flower brave enough to bloom first, sometimes while snow still lingers. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A snowflake
Need a hint?
Two words, and the second one falls from clouds.
Show answer
A snowdrop.
The name points at winter while the sentence says flower in the same breath, so what falls from a cloud is out. White then drops the purple cup that also beats the snow.
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84. As spring warms the maple trees, I begin rising up from the roots, and if you patiently boil me down I turn into sweet golden syrup. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: Maple syrup
Need a hint?
Name the liquid, not the jar it becomes.
Show answer
Sap.
Freezing nights and thawing days build pressure inside a maple and push a watery liquid up from the roots. Boiling is a later step that drives the water off, so naming the finished jar skips the stage being asked about.
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85. I am a springtime branch dotted with soft silvery buds that feel exactly like tiny kitten paws, even though I am only a plant. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A cattail
Need a hint?
The first word is a nickname for a cat.
Show answer
A pussy willow.
Where does the fuzz actually sit? Here it runs the whole length of a bending twig in separate buds, while a cattail gathers all of its fluff into one brown spike at the top of a stalk.
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86. Rabbits do not truly lay me, and yet every spring children search the whole yard hoping to find me hidden in bright cheerful colors. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A robin's egg
Need a hint?
Nobody laid this one, somebody painted it.
Show answer
An Easter egg.
Nothing in the sentence is untrue; the solver quietly adds the idea that some creature laid the thing. Drop that and what remains is an object somebody colored and then hid on purpose, which is a thing no wild nest ever supplies.
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87. When the spring downpour is truly pouring, people say it is raining these two furry household pets. Which two are they? Hard
Need a hint?
One purrs on your lap, the other fetches.
Show answer
Cats and dogs.
The words furry household pets point you at real animals, while the question is quoting a set phrase about heavy rain. Say that phrase and the two pets arrive as part of the wording, with nothing coming down from the clouds.
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88. Which springtime flower shares its name with the famous ship that carried the Pilgrims across the ocean to America? Hard
Need a hint?
A month and a bloom make one name.
Show answer
The Mayflower.
Hunting through garden names gets you nowhere here; start from the calendar instead. A month supplies the opening half of the shared word and a bloom supplies the rest, which is how one name landed on a ship and on a flower alike.
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89. I am a small sky-blue flower with a curious name that sounds like a gentle little plea never to be left out of your memory. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A bluebell
Need a hint?
Read the name as words, not as botany.
Show answer
A forget-me-not.
Saying the request itself in plain words is already saying the name, and the plea is where the sentence turns. A bluebell asks nothing of anybody.
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90. A baby chick pushing out of its egg and a clever secret plan can both do this very same word in spring. What is the word? Hard
Most people first say: The word crack
Need a hint?
The word also names an opening in a ship's deck.
Show answer
Hatch.
Which verb covers a physical act and a figurative one at the same time? Crack manages the shell and stops there, leaving no way to describe what a secret plan does over a long quiet afternoon.
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91. Grandparents tuck me away for a rainy day, while a bird tucks me under her feathered bottom up in the tree. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A piggy bank
Need a hint?
Money language stole a picture from birds.
Show answer
A nest egg.
Money language borrowed its picture from the henhouse, where a fake egg in the straw was meant to keep a hen on the same nest. The question runs that borrowing backwards, so a piggy bank covers the savings half and nothing up a tree.
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92. Gardeners say a flower should do this right where it is planted, and people borrow the same word to mean thriving wherever you happen to be. What is the word? Hard
Most people first say: The word grow
Need a hint?
Rhymes with room and groom.
Show answer
Bloom.
Grow covers the plant half well enough, which is why it arrives first, and then it has nothing to offer the saying about people. The verb wanted here carries petals opening and a person doing well in one go.
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93. People call a lively young person a spring ______, borrowing the name of a common farm bird. Fill in the blank. Hard
Most people first say: A spring duckling
Need a hint?
Think of the bird that says cluck.
Show answer
Chicken.
The phrase is frozen, so the bird inside it does not swap out for another that fits the meaning just as well. What goes in the blank is whichever bird the expression already carries.
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94. I am the hard little case a caterpillar forms tight around itself in spring, and inside me a remarkable change takes place before a butterfly steps out. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: A cocoon
Need a hint?
Moths spin one, butterflies make the other.
Show answer
A chrysalis.
Cocoon is the word almost everybody reaches for, and it names a wrapping spun from silk. What the question describes is a hard case formed from the animal's own skin.
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95. In spring we push our clocks in this direction and lose an hour of sleep, in a saying that rhymes neatly with fall back. What do we do? Hard
Most people first say: Spring back
Need a hint?
The season name is also a jump.
Show answer
Spring forward.
Spring is a season and also a verb meaning to jump, which is what makes the pair of sayings stick. Getting the word right and the direction wrong is the usual slip, since clocks move ahead in March and back in autumn.
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96. I am the one special spring day when daytime and nighttime stretch to nearly the same length, about twelve hours each. What am I? Hard
Most people first say: The solstice
Need a hint?
The Latin inside the name means equal night.
Show answer
The equinox.
Longest and shortest belong to the other date, the solstice, and that is the word which grabs first here. Day and night landing at nearly the same length describes a balance and not a record, which sends the answer the other way.
Spring riddles for kids
Seeds, rainbows, umbrellas and puddles. Nature clues simple enough for little kids to puzzle out, with hints ready when they stall.
Baby animal and garden riddles
Chicks, lambs, tadpoles and one grumpy bear waking from its den. Plus worms, ladybugs and everything else a spring garden hides.
Springtime riddles with answers for adults
Trick questions and quick trivia round out the set, from April showers to what bees really collect. Every card reveals its answer on tap.
Your score
FAQ about Spring Riddles
What ages are these spring riddles for?
The set spans kids and adults. Most nature riddles suit ages five and up, while the trick questions and trivia give grown-ups something to miss too.
Can I use these for a spring classroom activity?
Yes, they work well as March and April warm-ups or rainy day fillers. The raindrop counting picture and the odd-flower-out puzzle look great on a projector.
Do all the riddles include answers?
Riddle cards hide the answer until you tap, and every card in the Hard tier carries a hint. The multiple choice and type-in cards score you instantly.
If these springtime brainteasers put you in a seasonal mood, hop over to our Easter riddles for the whole family to keep the spring fun going. When you are ready to switch things up, try decoding a batch of picture-based rebus puzzles for a fresh challenge that will keep your brain guessing.