Ten Halloween riddles with answers under a cover: guess first, then tap Show answer.
Halloween Riddles
I am bumpy and brown, I hop and never walk, and the witches in stories keep dropping me into the pot. What am I?
I howl and I am not a wolf. I rattle the shutters and I have no hands. I can take the hat off a witch. What am I?
I say nothing, and every child on the street can read me. When I am on, come up the steps. When I am off, keep walking. What am I?
I am collected in the kitchen after the walk: one piece in every ten, taken by whoever carried the flashlight. What am I?
I cover the table before the carving starts and I am covered myself by the end. Yesterday I was full of news. What am I?
I float in a tub of water with my friends, and you may not use your hands. To win me you have to get your whole face wet. What am I?
Press me once and footsteps come. Tonight I am pressed a hundred times, and the dog answers every one. What am I?
Most nights I am your neighbor with the hairy arms. When the moon is round I grow a tail and sing to it. Who am I?
The front door of the haunted house is locked, there is no back door, and every window is nailed shut. By midnight twelve guests are dancing inside. How did they get in?
I am three boards between the sidewalk and the door. Tonight every child climbs me with an empty hand and comes down with a full one. What am I?
These Halloween riddles are written for a table of mixed ages: costumes and creatures of the night, pumpkins and the doorstep, and letter puzzles. They are spooky and never gory.
Read the full guide
Halloween riddles and jokes, by set
The menu under the button keeps one set. What am I and who am I describes a costume or a creature. Pumpkins, candy and the doorstep is the evening itself. Jokes and wordplay holds groaners and letter puzzles. Harder ones for adults holds trick questions, small sums and pun costumes.
Read one out, then open the answer
Tap Show answer under a riddle: the line below the answer says why it fits. Print gives the riddles on screen as a sheet.
Tips
Give the table one hint only: which word of the riddle to hear again.
A different answer that fits every clue earns the point too.
Questions and answers
What is a good Halloween riddle?
One a whole table can chew on. I have a head and no body, teeth and nothing to chew, and my smile glows from the inside. What am I? A jack-o'-lantern.
Are there hard Halloween riddles here?
Yes. Choose More filters in the menu, then Hard under Level. That level holds the trick questions, the sums and the letter puzzles, such as the letter that appears three times in trick or treat, once in costume and never in candy.
Which are the Halloween riddles for adults?
The set Harder ones for adults: lateral puzzles, pun costumes to name, and riddles on where the words Halloween, October and jack-o'-lantern come from. Every one is clean enough to read out with children in the room.
Are there who am I Halloween riddles?
Yes, the first set. A witch, a werewolf, a pirate and a bedsheet ghost describe themselves, and the table says who is speaking. The why line under each answer names the clue that gives it away.
By day I am only water hanging in the air. Tonight I lie along the ground, swallow your shoes and make every porch light look far away. What am I?Answer: Fog. Fog is tiny drops of water in the air close to the ground.
Every haunted house has me in its corners. Something with eight legs made me and moved out, and now I only catch dust. What am I?Answer: A cobweb. Cobweb is another word for a spider's web, and the dusty ones in corners are old ones.
I am a small flickering light over a bog at night, and nobody who follows me ever reaches me. The carved pumpkin on your step borrowed my old name. What am I?Answer: A will-o'-the-wisp. The name jack-o'-lantern first belonged to the strange lights seen over peat bogs.
I am bumpy and brown, I hop and never walk, and the witches in stories keep dropping me into the pot. What am I?Answer: A toad. A toad is the bumpy cousin of the frog and a storybook potion ingredient.
I am gray, I squeak and I have a long bare tail. In the cellar of the haunted house I am the only thing that is really there. What am I?Answer: A rat. The noises in a cellar usually have four feet and a tail.
I am made of boxes and kitchen foil. I walk with stiff knees and talk in one flat note, and the person inside me can barely sit down. What am I?Answer: A robot costume. Cardboard boxes covered in foil are the homemade robot.
I am made of glass and perfectly round. The fortune teller looks into me and sees whatever you were hoping to hear. What am I?Answer: A crystal ball. A crystal ball is the fortune teller's prop.
I am one bedsheet with two holes cut in it, and my whole speech is three letters long. Who am I?Answer: A bedsheet ghost. The holes are for the eyes, and the speech is boo.
I am the one part of the costume that cannot be hung up afterward. I go on with a sponge in three colors, and at bedtime I am an orange ring around the sink. What am I?Answer: Face paint. Face paint goes on with a sponge and comes off in the sink.
I am two plastic teeth too long for any mouth. Wear me and every S you say comes out as a whistle. What am I?Answer: Plastic fangs. Costume fangs clip over the front teeth and get in the way of the tongue.
I am wrapped from head to toe in strips of cloth. A cheap copy of me takes four rolls from the bathroom closet. Who am I?Answer: A mummy. The homemade mummy costume is a person wound in bathroom tissue.
I bubble and I steam, and somebody stirs me with a long spoon, but nobody is ever asked to stay for dinner. What am I?Answer: A cauldron. A cauldron is the witch's big iron pot, and what is in it is a potion and not a meal.
I can turn my head three quarters of the way around, my feathers fly without a sound, and I ask one question all night. What am I?Answer: An owl. An owl can turn its head as much as 270 degrees, and the question is who.
I come up tonight whether I am invited or not, pale and perfectly round. Wolves sing to me and broomsticks cross my face. What am I?Answer: The full moon. A witch on a broom against the full moon is the picture on half the decorations.
I complain every time somebody stands on me, and in a haunted house I complain when nobody does. What am I?Answer: A creaky stair. A stair that creaks with no foot on it is the oldest haunted-house sound.
I hang in the hall of the old house in a heavy frame. Wherever you stand, my eyes seem to be on you. What am I?Answer: An old portrait. A painted face that looks straight out seems to watch from every side.
I have a green face, a long nose and a wart on my chin, and at the end of the night you peel me off and put me in a drawer. What am I?Answer: A rubber mask. The face comes off because it was only a mask.
I have eight legs and I spin my own rope. In October people stretch cotton copies of my house over their bushes. What am I?Answer: A spider. Spiders have eight legs and make silk. The cotton on the bushes is a pretend web.
I have two arms, two legs and a zipper, and I am nobody at all until someone steps inside me. What am I?Answer: A costume. An empty costume is only cloth. The wearer makes it somebody.
I have whiskers, a tail and fur the color of midnight. Some people turn around when I cross their path. What am I?Answer: A black cat. An old superstition says a black cat crossing your path brings bad luck.
I howl and I am not a wolf. I rattle the shutters and I have no hands. I can take the hat off a witch. What am I?Answer: The wind. Wind howls around a house, shakes the shutters and carries hats away.
I live in a house that everyone walks past quickly. I climb the stairs at midnight and no step creaks, and I change rooms without opening a door. Who am I?Answer: A ghost. A ghost has no weight for the stairs and goes through the wall.
I live under a bridge, I am bad-tempered, and I ask everyone who wants to cross to pay me first. Who am I?Answer: A troll. The troll under the bridge who demands a toll is a figure of old folk tales.
I live under the bed or in the closet, I am never the same shape twice, and I am gone the moment the light goes on. Who am I?Answer: The monster under the bed. It is made of the dark, so the light switch ends it.
I own a pointed hat, a pot too big for soup and a broom I never sweep with. Who am I?Answer: A witch. The hat, the big pot and the broomstick are where every witch costume starts.
I sit on the edge of a roof with wings I never use and a face made to frighten. When it rains, the water comes out of my mouth. What am I?Answer: A gargoyle. A gargoyle is a carved stone spout that throws rainwater clear of a wall.
I sleep hanging by my feet and wake when the sun goes down. I am the only furry animal that truly flies. What am I?Answer: A bat. Bats roost upside down, and they are the only mammals that can keep themselves in the air.
I tap on the bedroom window all night with one long finger, and in the morning I am only part of the tree. What am I?Answer: A branch. Wind moves the branch against the glass, and daylight shows what it is.
I wear a cape with a tall collar, and I can never check my hair, because mirrors do not show me. Who am I?Answer: A vampire. In the old stories a vampire casts no reflection.
I wear a cape, a mask and boots, and tonight I save the whole city between one doorbell and the next. Who am I?Answer: A superhero. The cape, mask and boots are the costume, and the street is the city.
I wear a patch over one eye, I bury what I own, and the bird on my shoulder repeats me. Who am I?Answer: A pirate. The patch, the buried treasure and the parrot give the pirate away.
I wear a robe covered in stars and a hat even taller than a witch's, and I carry a stick that does all my work for me. Who am I?Answer: A wizard. The starry robe, the tall hat and the wand are a wizard's costume.
I wear a wide hat, boots and a bandana, and my horse is a broomstick with a sock for a head. Who am I?Answer: A cowboy. The hat, the boots and the stick horse make the cowboy costume.
I wear your costume in plain black. I stretch as you walk away from a streetlight and shrink as you reach the next one. What am I?Answer: Your shadow. A shadow is longest when the light is low and far behind you.
Most nights I am your neighbor with the hairy arms. When the moon is round I grow a tail and sing to it. Who am I?Answer: A werewolf. In the stories a werewolf changes shape under a full moon.
My feathers are black, and so are my beak and my feet. The straw man in the field was put there to scare me, and I am sitting on his hat. What am I?Answer: A crow. The scarecrow is named for the bird it is meant to scare.
My gate squeaks, my windows are dark and my doorbell is the one that nobody on the street rings twice. What am I?Answer: A haunted house. The squeaking gate and the dark windows are how a street picks its haunted house.
My shoes are three sizes too big, my nose is round and red, and the flower on my coat squirts water. Who am I?Answer: A clown. Big shoes, a red nose and a trick flower are a clown's whole kit.
Open me in the witch's kitchen and I tell you how much newt goes in. My recipes rhyme, and not one of them is for supper. What am I?Answer: A spell book. A spell book is the witch's recipe book, and its recipes are spells.
You have one of me inside you right now, and only an X-ray can take my picture. In October I hang on front doors. What am I?Answer: A skeleton. Everyone carries a skeleton around, and a paper one is a door decoration.
Pumpkins, candy and the doorstep 30
I am a date and I wear no costume. On my morning every orange bag in the store is suddenly half price. What am I?Answer: The first of November. The day after Halloween is when the leftover candy is marked down.
I am a field where every row is orange. A wagon full of hay brings you out to me, and you may pick one thing and take it home. What am I?Answer: A pumpkin patch. A pumpkin patch is a field where visitors choose their own pumpkin.
I am a fruit on a stick in a soft brown coat, and my coat stays on your teeth long after I am gone. What am I?Answer: A caramel apple. A caramel apple is an apple on a stick dipped in caramel.
I am a paper bag with a face cut into it and a small light inside, and a row of us shows the way to the door. What am I?Answer: A paper lantern. Paper bag lanterns line a path.
I am a small candy in three colors, shaped like a kernel that will never pop. Some people bite off my white tip first, then the orange, then the yellow. What am I?Answer: Candy corn. Candy corn is a three-colored candy shaped like a kernel: white at the tip, orange in the middle and yellow at the wide end.
I am brown, wrapped in foil and paper, and marked off in little squares. I am the first thing traded for and the first thing gone. What am I?Answer: A chocolate bar. A chocolate bar snaps into squares, and it is what everyone wants from the bag.
I am collected in the kitchen after the walk: one piece in every ten, taken by whoever carried the flashlight. What am I?Answer: The parent tax. The grown-up who walked the route takes a share.
I am hair that never grew on a head. Tonight I am purple and I itch, and by the third house I am riding in the bag with the candy. What am I?Answer: A wig. A costume wig comes off as soon as it itches.
I am pulled along behind the family on four small wheels. I carry the youngest pirate when her legs give out, and all the bags by the last street. What am I?Answer: A wagon. A pull wagon carries tired children and full bags.
I am the business done on the living room floor at nine o'clock: two of these for one of those, and nobody wants the raisins. What am I?Answer: The candy swap. After the walk the bags are tipped out and traded.
I am the handle a pumpkin is carried by, and the knob on its lid once the lid is cut. What am I?Answer: The stem. The stem is where the pumpkin was joined to the vine.
I am the loudest thing in the bag and I am worth nothing. When the candy is gone, I am the proof left under the bed. What am I?Answer: A candy wrapper. Wrappers crackle, and empty ones give the eater away.
I am the one thing in the treat bag that is not candy. The dentist at the end of the street dropped me in, and I have bristles. What am I?Answer: A toothbrush. A toothbrush is the dentist's idea of a treat.
I am the only candy in the bag that lasts the whole walk home. Blow, and I make a pink balloon that ends on your nose. What am I?Answer: Bubble gum. Bubble gum is chewed and not eaten, so it lasts, and it blows bubbles.
I am the small flame behind the smile. One puff of wind through the mouth, and the whole face goes dark. What am I?Answer: A candle. A candle lights the carved face from inside, and wind blows it out.
I am the thing that every costume in a cold town ends up hidden under, by order of a parent. What am I?Answer: A winter coat. The coat goes on over the costume, and the costume disappears.
I am three boards between the sidewalk and the door. Tonight every child climbs me with an empty hand and comes down with a full one. What am I?Answer: The porch steps. The treat is handed over at the top of the steps.
I am three words that sound like a choice. At a hundred doorsteps, nobody has ever picked the first one. What am I?Answer: Trick or treat. Every house answers with the treat.
I am tipped out on the rug, sorted by kind and counted twice before one piece of me is eaten. My owner knows at once if any of me is missing. What am I?Answer: The night's candy. Sorting and counting comes before eating.
I am twelve feet tall and full of air. A fan keeps me standing all evening, and by morning I am a puddle of cloth on the lawn. What am I?Answer: An inflatable yard decoration. When the fan stops, the air goes out and the figure folds up.
I am what a pumpkin is full of before the spoon goes in: cold wet strings that stick to your fingers. Everyone at the table has a face for me. What am I?Answer: The stringy pulp. The inside of a pumpkin is seeds held in wet strings.
I am what the carver scoops out and nearly throws away. Wash me, salt me and toast me, and I am the best part of the pumpkin. What am I?Answer: Pumpkin seeds. Toasted pumpkin seeds are the carver's snack.
I cover the table before the carving starts and I am covered myself by the end. Yesterday I was full of news. What am I?Answer: A newspaper. Old newspaper is spread out to catch what comes out of the pumpkin.
I float in a tub of water with my friends, and you may not use your hands. To win me you have to get your whole face wet. What am I?Answer: An apple in a bobbing tub. Bobbing for apples is a Halloween party game played with the teeth.
I have a head and no body, teeth and nothing to chew. Somebody gave me my smile with a knife, and it glows from the inside. What am I?Answer: A jack-o'-lantern. A jack-o'-lantern is a hollow pumpkin with a carved face and a light inside.
I ride on a stick. You can lick me for an hour or bite me in a second, and either way your tongue ends up my color. What am I?Answer: A lollipop. A lollipop is hard candy on a stick.
I say nothing, and every child on the street can read me. When I am on, come up the steps. When I am off, keep walking. What am I?Answer: The porch light. A lit porch is the usual sign that a house is giving out treats.
I sit on the step beside a note that says to take one. I start the night full and trusting, and how early I am empty says a lot about the street. What am I?Answer: The candy bowl. A bowl left out with a note depends on everyone taking one piece.
On other nights I hold a pillow. Tonight I go out empty and come home so heavy that I drag along the sidewalk. What am I?Answer: A pillowcase. A pillowcase is the classic treat bag.
Press me once and footsteps come. Tonight I am pressed a hundred times, and the dog answers every one. What am I?Answer: A doorbell. Each group of trick-or-treaters rings it.
Jokes and wordplay 30
A ghost says me. Add one letter to my end and a librarian lends me. What two words are we?Answer: Boo and book. Boo plus K is book.
A vampire's coat loses its first letter and turns into an animal that would also make a good costume. What are the two words?Answer: Cape and ape. Cape without its C is ape.
A vampire's tooth loses its last letter and turns into something that cools a hot room. What are the two words?Answer: Fang and fan. Fang without its G is fan.
A witch stirs her stew. Stir the four letters of the word stew themselves, and which direction on a map do you get?Answer: West. S-T-E-W rearranged spells west.
Drop the S from a sudden fright, and a kindness remains. Which pair of words is that?Answer: Scare and care. Scare without its S is care.
How do you mend a jack-o'-lantern that has a crack in it?Answer: With a pumpkin patch. A patch mends a hole, and a pumpkin patch is where pumpkins grow.
I am a key that opens many locks, and I am named for the thing that rattles on the Halloween door. What am I?Answer: A skeleton key. A skeleton key is a key cut down to its bare parts so that it opens many locks.
My first half moves water and my second half is your relatives. Whole, I sit on the porch with a candle in me. What word am I?Answer: Pumpkin. Pump plus kin spells pumpkin.
Put one letter in front of a witch and you can turn her on and off. Which letter is it, and what does she become?Answer: The letter S, and she becomes a switch. S plus witch spells switch.
Say what a ghost says, then say it again. What small hurt have you just named?Answer: A boo-boo. Boo twice makes a boo-boo, a child's word for a scrape.
Spell a flying night animal backward and you have the bill you run up at a diner. What are the two words?Answer: Bat and tab. Bat read from right to left is tab.
Stir the five letters of the word night and you get the vaguest word there is for whatever is under the bed. Which word is it?Answer: Thing. N-I-G-H-T rearranged spells thing.
Take the first letter off the one in the bedsheet and you have the person who is giving the party. What are the two words?Answer: Ghost and host. Ghost without its G is host.
Take the first letter off the thing a witch rides and you have a place to sleep. What are the two words?Answer: Broom and room. Broom without its B is room.
The thing that hides your face loses its first letter and becomes what you do at every door. What are the two words?Answer: Mask and ask. Mask without its M is ask.
Two candles sat in one carved pumpkin. What did the first one tell the second?Answer: "I am going out tonight." A candle goes out when its flame stops.
Two witches live on one street. Why do they wear name tags?Answer: So that people know which witch is which. Which and witch sound the same.
What appears three times in trick or treat, once in costume and never in candy?Answer: The letter T. Trick has one T, treat has two, costume has one and candy has none.
What comes at the very end of October every single year, even in a year with no Halloween party?Answer: The letter R. The word October ends in R.
What do you call a pumpkin with a whistle and a tall chair at the pool?Answer: A life-gourd. A pumpkin is a gourd, and gourd sounds like guard.
What do you call the place where a witch parks for the night?Answer: A broom closet. Her broom is what she rides, so the broom closet is her garage.
What do you get when you divide the distance around a jack-o'-lantern by the distance straight across it?Answer: Pumpkin pi. Around a circle divided by across it is the number pi, which sounds like pie.
What does a witch ring for when she stays in a hotel?Answer: Broom service. Room service, with a B in front.
Which monster is the best dancer at the party?Answer: The boogie man. To boogie is to dance.
Which three letters, side by side in the word treat, tell you what to do with one?Answer: E, A and T: eat. E-A-T are the last three letters of T-R-E-A-T.
Why are ghosts so bad at telling fibs?Answer: You can see right through them. To see through someone also means to know they are fibbing.
Why did the farmer give the scarecrow a medal?Answer: It was outstanding in its field. It stands out in a field all day, and outstanding also means excellent.
Why did the skeleton stay home from the dance?Answer: It had no body to go with. No body sounds like nobody.
Why did the witch's broom get to the party late?Answer: It overswept. Overswept is overslept with a broom in it.
Why do skeletons stay so calm at a noisy party?Answer: Nothing gets under their skin. To get under your skin is to bother you, and a skeleton has none.
Harder ones for adults 20
A ghost tells you that the day before yesterday was October 29. What night is it tonight?Answer: Halloween night. Yesterday was the 30th, so today is October 31.
A guest arrives with a bath sponge strapped to the chest, carries a hand mirror and talks only about themselves. What is the costume?Answer: Self-absorbed. A sponge absorbs, and the mirror does the rest.
A guest carries an empty picture frame and holds it up around their own face all evening. What is the costume?Answer: A self-portrait. The guest is the picture in the frame.
A guest wears a gray shirt with a dashed yellow line down the front and a dinner fork taped to the middle of it. What is the costume?Answer: A fork in the road. The shirt is the road and the fork is the fork.
A guest wears a raincoat with toy kittens and puppies pinned all over it. What is the costume?Answer: Raining cats and dogs. The saying for heavy rain, worn.
A guest wears an ordinary shirt with the word Ceiling written across it and shakes two pom-poms all night. What is the costume?Answer: A ceiling fan. A fan of the ceiling, cheering for it.
A haunted staircase has thirteen steps, and every second step creaks, starting with step two. A cat climbs to the top without one creak and never skips more than one step. How many steps does it touch?Answer: Seven. It lands on steps 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.
A vampire, a mummy and a ghost come home with 30 pieces between them. The vampire has twice as many as the mummy, and the ghost has as many as the other two together. How many does each have?Answer: The mummy has 5, the vampire 10 and the ghost 15. The ghost has half of the 30, and the other 15 split one part to two.
A werewolf changes at every full moon, and full moons come about 29 and a half days apart. Can it change twice in one October?Answer: Yes, when the first full moon falls on October 1 or early on October 2. October has 31 days, so a second full moon fits in on the 30th or 31st.
A witch's pot doubles whatever is in it at every stir. She drops in one frog and stirs until there are 64. Had she started with two frogs, how many fewer stirs would she have needed?Answer: One fewer. From one frog it takes six stirs to reach 64, and from two frogs it takes five.
At a costume party the number of guests in the hall doubles every quarter of an hour, and the hall is full at nine o'clock. When was it half full?Answer: At a quarter to nine. One doubling before full is half full.
Five pieces of candy are left in the bowl on the step. Five trick-or-treaters take one piece each, and one piece is still in the bowl. How?Answer: The last child took the bowl with the piece still in it. Four took a piece out. The fifth took the piece and the bowl together.
The front door of the haunted house is locked, there is no back door, and every window is nailed shut. By midnight twelve guests are dancing inside. How did they get in?Answer: Through the walls: the guests are ghosts. A locked door does not stop a ghost.
I am put on to be looked at and to stop you from being seen. The better I am made, the less anyone knows who they are looking at. What am I?Answer: A disguise. A disguise draws the eye and hides the wearer.
I was first carved from a turnip, an ocean away. In a new country I moved into a bigger, softer vegetable that is easier to cut. What am I?Answer: The jack-o'-lantern. Carved lanterns were once made from turnips and other root vegetables. The pumpkin took over in the United States.
My name counts to eight and I am the tenth of my kind. Halloween is my last day. What am I?Answer: October. Octo means eight: October was the eighth month of the oldest Roman calendar and kept its name.
My older name is three words long and ends in Eve, and the day after me belongs to all the saints. Which night am I?Answer: Halloween. Halloween is All Hallows' Eve, the evening before All Saints' Day on November 1.
Three smaller words sit inside the word Halloween with their letters side by side: a long corridor, a word meaning every one, and a word meaning tiny. What are they?Answer: Hall, all and wee. H-A-L-L, A-L-L and W-E-E all appear inside H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N.
Three trick-or-treaters wait at one door: a skeleton, a witch and a pirate. The witch did not get there first, the pirate is not at the back, and the skeleton is right behind the pirate. Who rings the bell?Answer: The pirate, who is at the front. The only order that fits is pirate, skeleton, witch.
Twelve pumpkins sit on a wall. You carve faces into three of them. How many pumpkins are on the wall now?Answer: Twelve. A carved pumpkin is still a pumpkin, and nobody took one away.
How this list was compiled
Written by the Game Night Generator editors on October 3, 2026: 120 Halloween riddles with one answer each, in four sets. What am I and who am I describes the costumes and creatures of the night; Pumpkins, candy and the doorstep covers the evening itself; Jokes and wordplay holds letter puzzles and playground groaners; Harder ones for adults holds trick questions, small sums, pun costumes and three riddles on where the night's words come from. The wording is the editors' own throughout. A few groaners and trick-question forms are traditional and belong to nobody; each is retold here in new words, and none was copied from a collection. Letter riddles and sums were checked by counting. Riddles that state a fact (the bat, the owl, the spider, the cobweb, the gargoyle, candy corn, the skeleton key, the turnip lantern, the names October and Halloween, the spacing of full moons) keep to the English Wikipedia article on the subject as it read on October 3, 2026 (en.wikipedia.org; text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, restated in our words). Nothing here is gory. The three levels are the editors' judgment; nobody timed the riddles with a group. This site is not connected with Wikipedia. Licence: own work