54 Riddles for Kids (With Answers)
Funny, tricky and clever riddles for kids, sorted by age: easy riddles, maths riddles, word riddles, animal riddles and brain teasers. Tap a riddle to see the answer.
Easy riddles for kids · Maths riddles · Word riddles · Animal riddles · Tricky brain teasers
Easy riddles for kids
What has hands but cannot clap?
Answer: A clock.
What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg.
What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
What has legs but cannot walk?
Answer: A table (or a chair).
What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
What has one eye but cannot see?
Answer: A needle.
What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold.
What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge.
What has keys but cannot open locks?
Answer: A piano (or a keyboard).
What do you call a bear with no teeth?
Answer: A gummy bear.
What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A clock.
Maths riddles
I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
Answer: Seven (take away the s and you get “even”).
How many months have 28 days?
Answer: All twelve of them. Every month has at least 28 days.
If there are three apples and you take away two, how many apples do you have?
Answer: Two, because you took them.
What can you put between 7 and 8 so the result is more than 7 but less than 8?
Answer: A decimal point: 7.8.
A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many are left?
Answer: Nine.
I am a three-digit number. My tens digit is 5 more than my ones digit, and my hundreds digit is 8 less than my tens digit. What am I?
Answer: 194.
When do 2 and 2 make more than 4?
Answer: When they make 22.
What number do you get when you multiply all the numbers on a phone keypad?
Answer: Zero, because one of the numbers is 0.
Which weighs more: a kilogram of feathers or a kilogram of bricks?
Answer: Neither. They both weigh one kilogram.
How can you add eight 8s to get 1,000?
Answer: 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000.
A brother and sister are 3 and 7. When the sister is 14, how old will the brother be?
Answer: 10. The gap always stays 4 years.
What is half of 2 plus 2?
Answer: 3. Halve 2 first to get 1, then add 2.
Word riddles
What word is spelt wrong in every dictionary?
Answer: “Wrong”.
What starts with T, ends with T and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short (add “er” to make “shorter”).
What begins with an E but only has one letter in it?
Answer: An envelope.
Which word in the dictionary is always spelt incorrectly?
Answer: “Incorrectly”.
What has 13 hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A pack of cards.
Which word contains 26 letters but only three syllables?
Answer: Alphabet.
What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter w.
What can you hold in your left hand but not in your right?
Answer: Your right elbow.
I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
Animal riddles
I have stripes and I roar, but I am not a cat you can keep as a pet. What am I?
Answer: A tiger.
I carry my home on my back, and I move very slowly. What am I?
Answer: A snail (or a tortoise).
I am black and white and I eat bamboo all day. What am I?
Answer: A giant panda.
I hop, I have a pouch, and I live in Australia. What am I?
Answer: A kangaroo.
I sleep upside down during the day and fly at night. What am I?
Answer: A bat.
I have a very long neck and eat leaves from the tops of trees. What am I?
Answer: A giraffe.
I start as an egg, then I am a caterpillar, and then I fly. What am I?
Answer: A butterfly.
I can change colour to match my surroundings. What am I?
Answer: A chameleon.
I am the largest animal that has ever lived. What am I?
Answer: The blue whale.
I have eight legs and spin a web. What am I?
Answer: A spider.
Tricky brain teasers
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
Answer: Footsteps.
What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter m.
I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I come alive with wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp.
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?
Answer: His son.
What has many teeth but cannot bite?
Answer: A comb.
What runs but never walks, has a mouth but never talks?
Answer: A river.
What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
If you drop me I am sure to crack, but give me a smile and I will smile back. What am I?
Answer: A mirror.
Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I?
Answer: A ton (backwards it is “not”).
Why riddles are good for children
Riddles are tiny thinking puzzles. To solve one, children have to notice that a word can mean two things, picture a situation from a new angle, or check their first answer, which are the same skills behind good reading comprehension and problem solving in maths. They are also a lovely way to fill a car journey or a spare five minutes at the end of a lesson.
Liked these? Try our brain games and logic puzzles, the thinking skills game or a daily word puzzle.