Most kids have a natural aptitude for the type of thinking riddles require and will surprise you with how well they tackle a stumper. The best riddles engage a kid’s natural problem-solving skills and make them laugh along the way. These easy riddles for kids — ranging from simple to hard — are great for children of all ages to solve and have fun while doing so.
The Best Food Riddles
Riddle: What has to be broken before you can use it? Answer: An egg. Riddle: You bought me for dinner but never eat me. What am I? Answer: Cutlery. Riddle: If you took two apples from a pile of three apples, how many apples would you have? Answer: The one apple you took. Riddle: What kind of vegetables are the most fun at parties? Answer: Fungi. Riddle: What is the richest nut? Answer: A cash-ew. Riddle: Why did the fruit salad skip its own wedding? Answer: It had a lot of can’t-elope. Riddle: What kind of beer won’t get you drunk? Answer: Root beer. Riddle: What kind of poultry is always going to the bathroom? Answer: Chick peas. Riddle: Why did the citrus tree go to the hospital? Answer: Lemon-aid. Riddle: You cut me, slice me, dice me, and all the while, you cry. What am I? Answer: An onion. Riddle: What kind of apples do computers prefer? Answer: Macintosh. Riddle: What has many ears but cannot hear? Answer: Corn. Riddle: What did the Mom tomato say to the dawdling Baby tomato? Answer: “Ketchup.” Riddle: I’m a bird, a person, and a fruit. What am I? Answer: A Kiwi. Riddle: How many eggs would a rooster lay over three weeks, provided it is adequately fed and housed? Answer: Zero. Roosters do not lay eggs. Riddle: I’m red or green and grow on a vine. I’m dried to make raisins and squeezed to make wine. What am I? Answer: Grapes. Riddle: When I’m ripe, I’m green, when you eat me, I’m red, and when you spit me out, I’m black. What am I? Answer: A watermelon. Riddle: I’m the father of fruits. What am I? Answer: A papa-ya. Riddle: What vegetable always loses in every competition yet is a terrific rapper? Answer: Beets. Riddle: What vegetable can you use to tie your shoelace? Answer: A string bean. Riddle: What fruit never wants to be alone? Answer: A pear. Riddle: I am a stick stuck in a ball of sweetness. What am I? Answer: Lollipop. Riddle: What fruit is friendly and likes to meet people? Answer: A date. Riddle: I am the sweetest and most romantic fruit. What am I? Answer: Honeydew. Riddle: Which vegetable is always unhappy? Answer: Bitter melon. Riddle: What vegetable grows eggs? Answer: Eggplant. Riddle: What is the most deceitful fruit? Answer: Lychee. Riddle: What do you call the father of all sodas? Answer: Pop.
The Best Math Riddles
Riddle: If two’s company, and three’s a crowd, what are four and five? Answer: Nine! Riddle: After a train crashed, every single person died. Who survived? Answer: All of the couples. Riddle: Four legs up, four legs down, soft in the middle, hard all around. What am I? Answer: A bed. Riddle: A word I know, six letters it contains, remove one letter and 12 remains, what is it? Answer: Dozens. Riddle: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I? Answer: Footsteps. Riddle: What goes up but never comes back down? Answer: Your age. Riddle: When things go wrong, what can you always count on? Answer: Your fingers. Riddle: I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I? Answer: Seven. Riddle: What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs? Answer: A penny. Riddle: What happens once in a lifetime, twice in a moment, but never in one hundred years? Answer: The letter “M.” Riddle: How many months in the year have 28 days? Answer: All months in the year have at least 28 days. Riddle: Using only addition and eight eights, how do you get 1,000? Answer: 888+88+8+8+8 Riddle: If I add six to 11, I get five. How? Answer: 11 a.m., six hours later, is 5 p.m.
The Best Medical and Science Riddles
Riddle: What can you catch but not throw? Answer: A cold. Riddle: A boy and his father get into a car accident. When they arrive at the hospital, the doctor sees the boy and exclaims, “that’s my son!” How can this be? Answer: The doctor is the boy’s mother. Riddle: Light as a feather, there’s nothing in it, but the strongest man can’t hold it much more than a minute. Answer: Breath. Riddle: What has hands but doesn’t clap? Answer: A clock. Riddle: I have legs but cannot walk. What am I? Answer: A chair. Riddle: I can fill up a room without taking any space. What am I? Answer: Light. Riddle: What becomes wetter the more it dries? Answer: A towel. Riddle: What can’t talk but will reply when spoken to? Answer: An echo. Riddle: The more of this there is, the less you see. What am I? Answer: Darkness. Riddle: What has a neck but no head and arms but no hands? Answer: A shirt. Riddle: What did the fox scientist name his laboratory? Answer: Den-sity. Riddle: I’m excellent to taste but horrible to smell. What am I? Answer: Tongue. Riddle: I can be good for you; I can be bad. You can find me all over your body. What am I? Answer: Bacteria. Riddle: What are the three Rs that keep our planet clean? Answer: Reduce, reuse, recycle. Riddle: I can rush, I can be hot, I can be cold, I can be hard, I can slip through anything. What am I? Answer: Water. Riddle: What period of time weighs the least? Answer: A light-year. Riddle: You cannot see me, I cannot be touched, you cannot feel me, but I can cook your lunch. What am I? Answer: A microwave particle. Riddle: I am a tunnel, a shortcut that connects places across space and time. What am I? Answer: A wormhole. Riddle: I have been around for millions of years but am only a month old. What am I? Answer: The moon. Riddle: What is a priest’s favorite part about physics? Answer: Mass. Riddle: I am a rock bigger than Venus but smaller than Uranus. What am I? Answer: Earth.
The Best Family Riddles
Riddle: If a brother, his sister, and their dog weren’t under an umbrella, why didn’t they get wet? Answer: It wasn’t raining. Riddle: I am so simple that I can only point, yet I guide men all over the world. Answer: A compass. Riddle: What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? Answer: Shorter. (Short + ‘er’) Riddle: What travels around the world but stays in one spot? Answer: A stamp. Riddle: Mary has four daughters, and each of her daughters has a brother — how many children does Mary have? Answer: Five, each daughter has the same brother. Riddle: David’s parents have three sons: Snap, Crackle, and…? Answer: David! Riddle: What belongs to you, but other people use it more? Answer: Your name. Riddle: Two fathers and two sons sit down for breakfast. They eat exactly three eggs, and yet each person ate an egg. How? Answer: One father is a grandfather, and therefore only eats one egg. Riddle: Three doctors said that Bill was their brother. Bill says he has no brothers. How many brothers does Bill actually have? Answer: None. He has three sisters.
The Best Animal Riddles
Riddle: What’s black, white, and blue? Answer: A sad zebra. Riddle: How can a leopard change its spots? Answer: By moving from one spot to another. Riddle: Why can’t a leopard hide? Answer: He is always spotted. Riddle: What do you call a cat who loves to swim? Answer: A catfish. Riddle: I jump while walking but sit while standing. What am I? Answer: A kangaroo. Riddle: The noises I make are bow-wow and tick-tock. What am I? Answer: A watch dog. Riddle: When you say “hey” to me, I eat it. What am I? Answer: A horse.
The Best Geography Riddles
Riddle: What has four eyes but can’t see? Answer: Mississippi. Riddle: Where can you find cities, towns, shops, and streets but no people? Answer: A map. Riddle: What room do ghosts avoid? Answer: The living room. Riddle: What is the capital in France? Answer: The letter F is the only capital letter in France. Riddle: What always comes into a house through the keyhole? Answer: A key. Riddle: Come up and we go, drop and we stay. What am I? Answer: An anchor. Riddle: I go up and down stairs without moving. What am I? Answer: Carpet. Answer: Rivers. Riddle: What goes through towns and over mountains but never moves? Answer: A road. Riddle: What is the laziest mountain in the world? Answer: Mt. Ever-rest.
The Best Short Riddles
Riddle: What is full of holes but still holds water? Answer: A sponge. Riddle: What is easy to get into but hard to get out of? Answer: Trouble. Riddle: I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I? Answer: A candle. Riddle: What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it? Answer: Silence. Riddle: What is always in front of you but can’t be seen? Answer: The future. Riddle: What has a neck but no head? Answer: A bottle. Riddle: What word is spelled wrong in the dictionary? Answer: Wrong. Riddle. What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it? Answer: A promise. Riddle: I’m filled with keys but can’t open a lock. What am I? Answer: A piano. Riddle: What has eyes, a tongue, and a soul but can’t see, taste, or die? Answer: A shoe. Riddle: What goes in your pocket but keeps it empty? Answer: A hole. Riddle: What kind of ship has two mates but no captain? Answer: A relationship.
The Best All-Around Riddles
Riddle: Mr. Blue lives in the blue house. Mrs. Yellow lives in the yellow house. Mr. Orange lives in the orange house. Who lives in the White House? Answer: The president. Riddle: What bank never has any money? Answer: A river bank. Riddle: If a red house is made of red bricks, and a yellow house is made of yellow bricks, what is a greenhouse made of? Answer: Glass. All greenhouses are made of glass. Riddle: You draw a line. Without touching it, how do you make it a longer line? Answer: Draw a short line next to it and now it’s the longer line. Riddle: How do you make the number one disappear? Answer: Add a “G” for “gone.” Riddle: What has 13 hearts but can’t love? Answer: A pack of cards. Riddle: Why did the kid bury his walkie-talkie? Answer: Because the batteries died.
The Best Tricky Riddles
Riddle: A phone and case cost $110 total. The phone costs $100 more than the case. How much is the phone? Answer: $105. Riddle: What begins with T, finishes with T, and has T in it? Answer: A teapot. Riddle: How many letters are there in the English alphabet? Answer: 18. Three in “the,” seven in “English,” and eight in “alphabet.” Riddle: What begins with an E but only has one letter? Answer: An envelope. Riddle: What question can you never answer yes to? Answer: Are you asleep yet? Riddle: I sometimes run but cannot walk. You follow me around. What am I? Answer: Your nose. Riddle: A cowboy comes into town on Friday. He stays two nights at a local hotel. He leaves on Friday. How is this possible? Answer: His horse’s name is Friday. Riddle: I am a gas that helps plants but cannot be bought at the gas station. What am I? Answer: Carbon dioxide. Riddle: What word has three sets of repeating letters back-to-back-to-back? Answer: Bookkeeper.
