• 74 riddles
  • Checked October 2026

Brain Break Riddles

One riddle at a time for the board, with the answer covered until the class has had its guesses.

Brain Break Riddles

Show all 74
  1. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. Which number am I?

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All 74 riddles

What am I? 21

  • I am full of holes, yet I can hold water. What am I? A sponge.
  • I am long when I am new and short when I am old, and I lose a little each time I am sharpened. What am I? A pencil.
  • I am not alive, but I grow. I have no lungs, but I need air. Water puts an end to me. What am I? Fire.
  • I am so fragile that saying my name breaks me. What am I? Silence.
  • I follow you all day in the sunshine and leave you when the lights go out. What am I? Your shadow.
  • I have a head and a tail, but no body. What am I? A coin.
  • I have a spine but no bones, and a jacket but no arms. What am I? A book.
  • I have a tongue but never speak, and I go wherever you walk. What am I? A shoe.
  • I have a trunk but pack no clothes, and a bark but no bite. What am I? A tree.
  • I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees and rivers but no water. What am I? A map.
  • I have keys, a space and an enter, but no door. What am I? A computer keyboard.
  • I have one eye, but I cannot see. What am I? A needle.
  • I have one head, one foot and four legs. What am I? A bed.
  • I have teeth, but I never bite. What am I? A comb.
  • I run but never walk. I have a mouth but never speak, and a bed but never sleep. What am I? A river.
  • I speak without a mouth and answer only when you call. What am I? An echo.
  • I stand at the board, and I get shorter with every word I write. What am I? A piece of chalk.
  • I stay in one corner, yet I travel all around the world. What am I? A postage stamp.
  • If you have me, you want to share me. Once you share me, you no longer have me. What am I? A secret.
  • The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they? Footsteps.
  • The more you take away from me, the bigger I get. What am I? A hole.

Words and letters 17

  • Forward I am heavy. Backward I am not. What am I? The word ton. Backward it spells not.
  • I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. Which number am I? Seven. Take away the S, and even is left.
  • I am the start of eternity and the end of time and space. I am the start of every end and the end of every place. What am I? The letter E.
  • What begins with T, ends with T and has T in it? A teapot. It has tea in it.
  • What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years? The letter M.
  • What has four eyes but cannot see? Mississippi. The name is spelled with four letter I's.
  • What has four letters, sometimes has nine letters and never has five letters. It is a statement, not a question. The word what has four letters, sometimes has nine and never has five.
  • What is at the end of every rainbow? The letter W.
  • What is black and white and red all over? A newspaper: it is read all over. Ask this one aloud, because red and read sound the same.
  • What is the center of gravity? The letter V. It is the middle letter of the word gravity.
  • What starts with E, ends with E and usually holds one letter? An envelope.
  • Where does today come before yesterday? In a dictionary. T comes before Y.
  • Which five-letter word sounds the same after you take away its last four letters? Queue. It sounds like the letter Q.
  • Which letter of the alphabet holds the most water? C. It sounds like sea.
  • Which word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? Short. Add E and R, and it reads shorter.
  • Which word has three pairs of double letters, one straight after another? Bookkeeper: OO, KK, EE.
  • Written in capital letters, which word reads the same forward, backward and upside down? NOON.

Numbers 17

  • A farmer has 3 haystacks in one field and 4 in another. She pushes them all together. How many haystacks does she have now? One big one.
  • A pound of feathers or a pound of bricks: which weighs more? Neither. A pound is a pound.
  • As I was going to St Ives, upon the road I met seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks and wives: how many were going to St Ives? One: the speaker. That is the traditional answer, because everyone else was met on the road, coming away from St Ives. An English rhyme, printed in this wording in 1779.
  • Divide 30 by one half and add 10. What do you get? 70. Dividing by one half doubles a number: 30 becomes 60, and 10 more makes 70.
  • How many months of the year have 28 days? All 12. Every month has at least 28 days.
  • How many seconds are there in a year? Twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, and so on to December 2nd.
  • How many times can you take 5 away from 25? Once. After that you are taking 5 away from 20.
  • How many times does the digit 9 appear in the numbers from 1 to 100? 20 times: ten in the ones place, from 9 to 99, and ten in the tens place, from 90 to 99.
  • I am a two-digit number, less than 30. I am odd, and my two digits add up to 9. What am I? 27.
  • I have two coins that add up to 30 cents, and one of them is not a nickel. What are the coins? A quarter and a nickel. One of them is not a nickel, but the other one is.
  • There are 6 apples on the table and you take away 4. How many apples do you have? 4: the ones you took.
  • Think of any number. Double it, add 6, halve the result, then take away the number you started with. What is left? 3, whatever number you chose. The doubling and the halving cancel out, and half of the 6 is left.
  • Two mothers and two daughters share a pizza, and each eats one slice. Only three slices are gone. How? There are three people: a grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter.
  • Using only addition, how can you make 1,000 with eight 8s? 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000.
  • What can you put between a 5 and a 6 so that the result is more than 5 but less than 6? A decimal point: 5.6.
  • When does 11 plus 2 equal 1? On a clock. Two hours after 11 o'clock it is 1 o'clock.
  • Which three different whole numbers give the same answer whether you add them or multiply them? 1, 2 and 3. Added or multiplied, they make 6.

Think twice 19

  • A bus driver goes the wrong way down a one-way street, right past a police officer, and breaks no law. How? The bus driver is walking.
  • A rider comes into town on Friday, stays for three nights and rides out again on Friday. How? The horse is named Friday.
  • A rooster lays an egg on the very top of a barn roof. Which way does the egg roll? Neither way. Roosters do not lay eggs.
  • How far can a fox run into the woods? Halfway. After that it is running out of the woods.
  • Maya's mother has four children. The first three are named North, East and South. What is the fourth child's name? Maya.
  • What belongs to you, though other people use it more than you do? Your name.
  • What can fill a whole room without taking up any space? Light.
  • What can you break without touching it? A promise.
  • What can you hold in your left hand but never in your right hand? Your right hand. Your right elbow works too: try it.
  • What goes up and never comes down? Your age.
  • What has to be broken before you can use it? An egg.
  • What is always coming but never arrives? Tomorrow.
  • What kind of room has no doors and no windows? A mushroom.
  • What kind of tree can you carry in your hand? A palm.
  • What two things can you never eat for breakfast? Lunch and dinner.
  • Which building in town has the most stories? The library.
  • Which creature has one voice, yet goes on four feet, then on two feet, then on three? A person: a baby crawls on all fours, an adult walks on two feet, and in old age a walking stick makes three. In Greek myth the Sphinx asked this riddle at the city of Thebes.
  • Which is correct: the yolk of an egg is white, or the yolks of an egg are white? Neither. A yolk is yellow.
  • Which question can you never truthfully answer with yes? Are you asleep?

How it works

These brain break riddles are short enough to read aloud once: what am I riddles, word and letter riddles, number riddles and trick questions. The answer stays covered until you ask for it, so the screen can face the class.

Read the full guide

A riddle as a one-minute break

1. Read the riddle on screen aloud, once. 2. Start the 1-minute timer for silent thinking. Pupils stand when they have an answer. 3. Take three guesses. 4. Press Show answer, and ask one pupil to explain the trick.

Brain break riddles for high school

The menu that reads All riddles sorts them. Harder, for high school holds letter puzzles, number traps, the riddle of the Sphinx and one that is not a question at all. Easy, for younger classes keeps to things a child can picture: a comb, a shoe, a mushroom.

  • Ask pupils who already know a riddle to stay poker-faced until the guesses are in.
  • What can you hold in your left hand but never in your right hand gets every pupil trying it.

Questions and answers

What are good brain breaks riddles for a class?

Short ones with one clear answer. Three from this list: I have teeth, but I never bite (a comb). What is at the end of every rainbow (the letter W). How many months of the year have 28 days (all 12).

Do the riddles come with answers?

Yes, every one. On the tool the answer stays covered until you press Show answer. The full list under the tool prints each riddle with its answer, for planning.

Where do these riddles come from?

They are written or retold in our own words, and many are traditional riddles with no known author. Three old ones were read on Wikipedia on October 9, 2026: the riddle of the Sphinx, As I was going to St Ives and the newspaper riddle.

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