Challenge your friends with these tough riddles even for adults. 🧠
Last updated: July 22, 2024 by The Homemade Gifts Team
Riddles for adults are a fantastic way to liven up any gathering. The other day I was at a party and stumped for something to talk about. Then I remembered and shared a few clever riddles, and all of a sudden I’d made three new friends! That’s because riddles are a great source of entertainment that gets people laughing and thinking at the same time.
After having such a great experience at the party, I decided to compile a collection of riddles that my readers can use in any kind of situation. Whether you want to spark conversations at a dinner party, break the ice with strangers, lighten the mood, or simply kill some time. I’ve chosen a range of riddles that will have your new friends occupied and bonding over these puzzles for hours.
To use our riddles for adults, just scroll on down and take a look. You’ll find the best riddles for any occasion with puzzles and brain teasers for every difficulty level and mood. I hope you have as much fun sharing these as I did creating this collection!
Best Riddles for Adults
Which side of a dog is the most furry?
Answer: The outside
What has wheels and flies and isn’t an airplane?
Answer: Garbage truck
What’s red and smells like blue paint?
Answer: Red paint
What gets wetter as it dries?
Answer: A towel
What’s green and fuzzy, and if it falls out of a tree will kill you?
Answer: A pool table
You have a barrel full of water, what do you add to the barrel in order to make it lighter?
Answer: A hole
What goes up and never comes down?
Answer: Your age
What does a liar do when he’s dead?
Answer: He lies still
Arnold Schwarzenegger has a long one. Michael J. Fox has a short one. The Pope has one but doesn’t use it.
Answer: A last name
What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
Answer: Lunch and dinner
Every time my mom drives past a graveyard with someone new in the car she asks, “how many people are dead in there?”
Answer: “All of them”
A rooster sits on the roof of a barn and lays an egg. Which side of the barn does it roll down?
Answer: Roosters don’t lay eggs.
Ten ladies tried to fit under a small umbrella, none of them got wet. How did they do it?
Answer: It wasn’t raining
What has a bottom at the top?
Answer: Your legs
Funny Riddles for Adults
What has a bed but never sleeps? What has a mouth but never eats?
Answer: A river
What is something that you own, but others use more than you?
Answer: Your name
What can you catch but never throw?
Answer: A cold
A bus driver is heading down a road. He turns left at a no left turn sign, runs a red light, and goes the wrong way on a one way road. He passes a cop car, yet he is not punished. Why?
Answer: He’s walking
What always goes to sleep with shoes on?
Answer: A horse
When I am filled I can point the way. When I am empty nothing moves me. I have two skins, one without and one within.
Answer: Glove
Two children are born on the same day by the same mother but they are not twins. How is that possible?
​Answer: They are triplets!
The rich need it, the poor have it, and if you eat it you’ll die.
Answer: Nothing
What goes up and down but never moves?
Answer: The stairs
How far can a dog run into the woods?
Answer: Halfway
If two is company and three is a crowd, what is four and five?
Answer: Nine, of course
What runs but never walks?
Answer: A tap
Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest
What has loads of keys, but can’t open a door?
Answer: A piano
Where in the world can you find Friday before Thursday?
Answer: In a dictionary
Good Riddles for Adults
What runs up and down the stairs without moving?
Answer: The carpet
What kind of cheese is made backwards?
Answer: Edam
I’m as light as a feather but the strongest of people cannot hold me for over a minute. What am I?
Answer: Your breath
I have cities, but no people. I have roads, but no pavement. I have rivers, but no water. What am I?
Answer: A map
What type of coat is wet when you put it on for the first time?
Answer: A coat of paint
Where can you finish a book without finishing a sentence?
Answer: Prison
What kind of vegetable needs a plumber?
Answer: A leek
What can you give a man with no hair that he will never part with?
Answer: A comb
Do they have a 4th of July in England?
Answer: Yes, it comes after the 3rd of July.
What spends all the time on the floor but never gets dirty?
Answer: Your shadow
How many months in the year have 28 days?
Answer: All of them
How do you drop an egg from a height onto concrete without cracking it?
Answer: Concrete floors are too strong to be cracked by eggs.
I have a head and feet like a dog, but I am not a dog. What am I?
Answer: A puppy
What has a neck but doesn’t have a head?
Answer: A bottle
What begins with the letter P, finishes with the letter E and has over a thousand letters in it?
Answer: Post Office
Fun Riddles for Adults
What has 3 letters and starts with gas?
Answer: A car
Why would a lady living in New Zealand never be buried in Australia?
Answer: Because she is living
Little Jimmy throws a tennis ball as hard and far as he can. The ball comes straight back to him. How does this happen?
Answer: Jimmy throws the ball directly upwards
If there’s a bee in my hand, what’s in my eye?
Answer: Beauty. It’s in the eye of the bee-holder.
When is a door not a door?
Answer: When it’s ajar
What’s brown and sticky?
Answer: A stick
Which word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly
What has many hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A deck of cards
What is the least spoken language?
Answer: Sign language
What has a tongue but never says a word?
Answer: A shoe
If Apple made a car, what would be missing?
Answer: Windows
Lose me once, I’ll come back stronger. Lose me twice, I’ll leave forever. What am I?
Answer: A tooth
What kind of murderer is full of fiber?
Answer: A cereal killer
You leave home, take three left turns, and return home. Who are the two masked men waiting for you?
Answer: The ump and the catcher
Hard Riddles for Adults
I am heavy forward; I weigh a lot. But when I am backwards, I’m certainly not. What am I?
Answer: Ton
I have 6 faces, but I don’t wear makeup. I have 21 eyes, but I can’t see. What am I?
Answer: A dice
What sits at the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place?
Answer: The letter E
What sounds like a sneeze and is made out of leather?
Answer: A shoe
Which 5 letter words in the dictionary can be pronounced the same, even if it has 4 of its letters removed?
Answer: Queue
The part of a bird that’s not in the sky, can swim in the ocean, and always stay dry.
Answer: Shadow
With pointed fangs and in plain sight, my bloodless victims are bound by my bite. What am I?
Answer: Stapler
What is something that you can easily hold in your right hand but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left elbow
The more of me that you take, the more you will have left behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps
A man is looking at a wanted poster. Another man approaches him and asks who the man on the poster is. The guy responds: “Brothers and sisters, I have none. But this man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is the man in the wanted poster?
Answer: He is the father of the man in the poster.
What is so unbelievably fragile that just by speaking its name will break it?
Answer: Silence
A man had a dog. He went to the market with his dog. He rode on a horse called victory, Yet walked. What is the name of the dog?
Answer: Yet
I am only useful when I am full, yet I am always full of holes.
Answer: Sieve
When there’s one of me, you’re wrong. When there’s two of me, there’s twenty. When there’s three of me? It’s dirty. What am I?
Answer: The letter X
What has a ring but no fingers?
Answer: Your phone
Tricky Riddles for Adults
Tread on the living, they make not a mumble. Tread on the dead, they mutter and grumble.
Answer: Leaves
What word begins with E, ends with E, and contains one letter, but it’s not the letter E.
Answer: Envelope
What lives if you feed it but dies if you give it a drink?
Answer: Fire
What sometimes freezes after it has been heated up?
Answer: A computer
You are the bus driver. At the first stop 15 people get on. At your second stop, five people get off and six get on. At the third stop, 10 people get off and 20 get on. At the fourth stop, 8 people get off and 5 people get on. What color are the bus driver’s eyes?
Answer: The color of the bus driver’s eyes are whatever color your eyes are. Remember the first line of the riddle was “YOU are the bus driver.”
Plane crashes on the border of the US and Canada, where do they bury the survivors?
Answer: You don’t bury survivors.
I am a vessel without hinges, lock, or lid. Yet, within my walls a golden treasure is hid. What am I?
Answer: An egg
What will go up a chimney down, but won’t go down a chimney up?
Answer: Umbrella
A man goes out in heavy rain with nothing to protect him from it. His hair doesn’t get wet. How does he do that?
Answer: He is bald.
From the Middle Ages: “Round as an apple, deep as a cup, all the king’s horses can’t pull it up.”
Answer: A well
I know a word. Six letters it contains. Take away one. And twelve is what remains.
Answer: Dozens
I never was, am always to be,
No one ever saw me, nor ever will
And yet I am the confidence of all
To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball
Who am I?
Answer: Tomorrow
You heard me before, yet you hear me again, then I die, ’til you call me again.
Answer: Echo
Two fathers and two sons sit down for dinner. They eat exactly three pieces of bread, yet they all had a slice each. How?
Answer: One father is a grandfather.
Clever Riddles for Adults
What starts and ends with T, and is filled with T?
Answer: Teapot
If you call me, I disappear.
Answer: Silence
What can hold water but is full of holes?
Answer: A sponge
There are 10 kids and a bowl with 10 oranges in it. How do you divide up the oranges so that every kid gets an orange but one remains in the bowl?
Answer: You give 9 kids an orange each and you give the tenth kid the bowl with the orange in it.
Who travels all over the world but always staying in the same corner?
Answer: A Stamp
What question can you never say yes to?
Answer: Are you asleep yet?
The man who invented it doesn’t want it. The man who bought it doesn’t need it. The man who needs it doesn’t know it. What is it?
Answer: A coffin
What happens once in a minute, twice in a moment, and yet never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M
What flies forever, rests never?
Answer: The wind
Tall I am young; short I am old. While with life I do glow, wind is my foe.
Answer: A candle
A man is driving along and sees three doors: a golden door, a silver door, and a diamond door. Which door does he open first?
Answer: His car door
If you are running a race, and you pass the person in 2nd, what place are you in?
Answer: Second
If a fella met a fella in a field of beans, could a fella tell a fella what a fella means? How many f’s are in that?
Answer: There are zero f’s in the word that.
What has hands but cannot clap?
Answer: A clock.
Keep the Fun Going!
If our Riddles for Adults have left you wanting more, you’re in for a treat. From holiday-themed laughs to mind-engaging games, there’s something on our site for every mood:
