Tricky Riddles and answers

- 20 tricky riddles -

1. If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many apples do you have?
2. What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary?
3. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a year?
4. What gets wetter the more it dries?
5. I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What am I?
6. How much dirt is in a hole 6 feet deep and 6 feet wide?
7. David's parents have three sons: Snap, Crackle, and who?
8. Say my name and I disappear. What am I?
9. Forward I'm heavy, but backward I'm not. What am I?
10. What has 13 hearts but no other organs?
11. The more of me you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
12. What is full of holes but still holds water?
13. I'm tall when I'm young and I'm short when I'm old. What am I?
14. If you drop me, I will crack. Smile at me, and I smile back. What am I?
15. What goes up but never comes down?
16. Two days ago I was 21, and next year I'll be 24. When's my birthday?
17. I have lakes with no water and mountains with no stone. What am I?
18. I'm in December, but not in any other month. I'm not a holiday. What am I?
19. I have keys but no doors. You can enter, but can't go outside. What am I?
20. What are the next three letters in this combination: OTTFFSS?

 

 

- Answers -

1. 2

This is a riddle where you need to keep a close eye on the second-person pronoun. Although set up like a simple math problem (3 - 2 = 1), the riddle is saying “you” take away two apples and then asking how many apples “you” have.

2. incorrectly

"Conscientious," "fluorescent," and "hygiene" are definitely tricky to spell, but dictionaries usually have them right. That’s the dictionary’s job, after all. The only word they all spell “incorrectly” is "incorrectly."

3. m

There's one "m" in "minute," two in "moment," and none in "a year," making the answer to this alphabetical riddle the letter "m."

4. A towel

The more a towel dries you off, the more water it must absorb and the wetter it gets. This riddle relies on the multiple meanings of the word "dries," which is a technique many riddles employ to trick people trying to solve them.

5. Seven

Seven is an odd number, and if you take away the letter "s," "seven" becomes "even."

6. None

The point of a hole is that there is no dirt in it at all. If you dig a hole, you will have removed all the dirt from it. This one is kind of a trick question, but then again, so are most riddles.

7. David

The people who have the three sons are David's parents, so David himself is the first son, and Snap and Crackle are the two others. The wording on this one can be a little tricky if you aren't paying attention from the very beginning, but that's what riddles are all about.

8. Silence

If you say the word "silence," you'll have broken the silence and it will disappear. Ghosts and moths don't have that ability, and though Rumpelstiltskin got mad when people said his name, he still stuck around.

9. Ton

If read forward, a ton is something that weighs 2,000 pounds — that's pretty heavy. If you read it backward, "ton" spells "not," fulfilling the second, trickier part of this riddle.

10. A deck of cards

A standard 52-card deck has four suits, including hearts, of which there are 13. Spades, clubs, and diamonds aren't other organs, so there's your answer. So far, science has not yet discovered any octopodes or earthworms that fit the bill (although both do have a lot of hearts).

11. Footsteps

Every footstep taken leaves another footstep behind the walker. It'd be nice if candy came in an infinite supply like that, but for this riddle, the answer is footsteps.

12. Sponges

Sponges are created by mixing cellulose and hemp fibers with sodium sulfate crystals. This combination creates the perfect hole and pore structure that can absorb any liquid — quite the opposite of what you think would happen if something with holes gets wet.

13. A candle

When it is just made, a candle is at its maximum height, but as it burns, the wax melts and the candle gets smaller and smaller. By the time it's old, the candle is much shorter than when it was made.

14. A mirror

While all of these things would crack if you dropped them, only a mirror will show your reflection and "smile back" at you if you smile at it.

15. Your age

Your age is one thing that never goes in reverse. Will this always be the case? Scientists in 2022 reported that they’d successfully reversed aging in mice by replacing adult cells with stem cells. Stay tuned.

16. December 31

The person stating this question is doing so on January 1, and their birthday is December 31. So two days before New Year’s Day, the person was 21. On December 31, they turned 22, and in the current year, they'll turn 23 — which means the next year, they'll turn 24. Thankfully, no leap days are involved.

17. A map

Instead of hunting for a specific region or planet, the answer lies with the humble map, which has representations of all these landforms but no physical substances like water or stone.

18. D

This is a tricky case of perception. Most people’s first thought is to think of winter or events that happen specifically in December — not the word December itself and the spelling of other months. December is a holdover from the ancient Roman calendar, when it was the 10th month before the introduction of January and February.

19. A computer keyboard

Computer keyboards sport letter keys and an “enter” key, but doors and outdoor space are nowhere to be found on these devices. Although computer keyboards feel like a modern invention, the recognizable QWERTY layout on today’s modern keyboard was invented by American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes way back in 1874.

20. ENT

Although these seem like a random assortment of letters, they are actually the first letters of the numbers one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. The next letters in this sequential combination are ENT, for eight, nine, and ten.