Short Riddles

Ten short riddles of one line each, answers under a cover: guess, then tap Show answer.

Short Riddles

I rise in a warm oven and sink if the door slams.
Which invention lets you see straight through a wall?
What can you crack without breaking anything?
What has a floor, a bed and no ceiling?
What has a heel and no foot, and gets sliced?
I start green, turn yellow, and end up spotted brown.
Which tire does not turn when a car turns right?
What only starts to work after it has been fired?
What can fill a whole room and take up no space?
Who has bad luck when a white cat crosses the path?

Next step Long story riddles to solve by asking

How it works

Every riddle here is a single line of twelve words or fewer, and no answer is longer than three words. These quick riddles fit a text message, a place card, a slide or a morning announcement.

Read the full guide

Five kinds of one-liner

The menu under the button keeps one kind. What am I? speaks as the thing itself. Wordplay turns on a pun or a spelling. Trick one-liners hide a catch in plain words. What has names a part with two meanings, such as a crown. Everyday things asks about what you do each day.

Send one, or read ten aloud

Each line is short enough to select and paste into a message or onto a slide. For a table, read the ten on screen in turn and tap Show answer after each guess. Show all answers opens every cover at once.

Tips

Choose More filters in the menu, then Level, to keep only Easy, Medium or Hard.
Print gives the riddles with a line under each and the answers on a page of their own.

Questions and answers

What are some good short riddles?

Three to start with. What has a crown and no kingdom? A tooth. What do you fill with empty hands? Gloves. What gets served again and again and is never eaten? A tennis ball.

Are there easy short riddles here?

Yes. About a third are marked Easy, such as what goes to bed with its shoes on? A horse. Choose More filters in the menu under the button, then Level. The levels are the editors' judgment.

How short is a short riddle?

On this page, twelve words or fewer, the question included, with an answer of one to three words. A script counted every line, so nothing longer slipped in.

What is a short riddle with a one-word answer?

I am easy to get into and hard to get out of: trouble. What can fill a whole room and take up no space? Light. What do you jump to and never land on? Conclusions.

All 100 riddles

What am I? 20

Bend me until I crack, and I begin to shine. Answer: A glow stick. Cracking the tube inside mixes what makes it glow.
I am a ship that sinks on purpose and comes back up. Answer: A submarine. A submarine dives under the water and surfaces again.
I am easy to get into and hard to get out of. Answer: Trouble. Getting into trouble takes a moment; getting out takes longer.
I am full of stars, and nobody has counted me. Answer: The night sky. There are more stars than anyone can count.
I am taller sitting down than standing up. What am I? Answer: A dog. A sitting dog holds its head higher than a dog on all four legs.
I am the white hat that tall mountains wear. Answer: Snow. High peaks keep a cap of snow.
I am thrown out when needed and hauled in when not. Answer: An anchor. A ship drops it to stop and raises it to leave.
I cross the night sky with a tail of fire. Answer: A shooting star. A shooting star leaves a bright streak behind it.
I grow as you blow, and then I am gone. Answer: A bubble. Blow too long and it pops.
I have a beginning, a middle and an end, and no body. Answer: A story. Every story has those three parts.
I have a bulb and cloves, and I never light a room. Answer: Garlic. A head of garlic is a bulb, and its sections are called cloves.
I have a thousand needles and cannot sew a stitch. Answer: A pine tree. Its leaves are needles.
I have four teeth, and I feed you. What am I? Answer: A fork. The prongs of a fork are sometimes called teeth, and most have four.
I point the way and never take a step. Answer: A signpost. It shows the direction and stays in the ground.
I rise in a warm oven and sink if the door slams. Answer: A cake. A cake rises as it bakes, and a jolt can make it fall.
I run down my string and climb back to your hand. Answer: A yo-yo. A yo-yo unwinds on the way down and winds itself up again.
I start green, turn yellow, and end up spotted brown. Answer: A banana. That is how a banana ripens.
I taste everything and get swallowed by nobody. What am I? Answer: Your tongue. The tongue does the tasting and stays where it is.
I tickle first, and then I burst. What am I? Answer: A sneeze. The tickle in the nose comes before the sneeze.
People set me, clear me and wipe me, and never eat me. Answer: The table. You set the table, clear the table and wipe the table.

Wordplay 20

What comes after L, right in the middle of your arm? Answer: Bow. L-bow: elbow.
What do lazy dogs do for fun? Answer: Chase parked cars. A parked car is the only kind a lazy dog can catch.
What do you call a bee that cannot make up its mind? Answer: A maybe. May-BEE.
What do you call a boomerang that will not come back? Answer: A stick. Without the coming back, that is all it is.
What do you call a camel with no hump? Answer: Humphrey. Hump-free.
What do you call a fake stone in Ireland? Answer: A sham rock. Sham means fake, and a shamrock is a clover.
What do you call a pizza that is fast asleep? Answer: A piZZZa. The two Zs in pizza are snoring.
What do you call a snake that is 3.14 feet long? Answer: A pi-thon. Pi is the number 3.14 and a bit, and a python is a snake.
What do you call an ant that will never leave? Answer: Permanent. Perm-ANT, and permanent means lasting for good.
What do you get when a snowman meets a bulldog? Answer: Frostbite. Frost from the snowman and a bite from the dog.
What gets served again and again and is never eaten? Answer: A tennis ball. Each point of tennis starts with a serve.
What has a horn and gives milk? Answer: A milk truck. The horn is the kind a driver honks.
What is round at both ends and high in the middle? Answer: Ohio. O at each end and HI in the middle: O-HI-O.
What kind of music does a mummy like best? Answer: Wrap. Wrap sounds like rap, and a mummy is wrapped.
What kind of tea is the hardest to swallow? Answer: Reality. Reali-TEA: the truth can be hard to swallow.
What sits on the sea floor and shivers? Answer: A nervous wreck. A wreck is a sunken ship, and a nervous wreck is someone very jumpy.
What stays hot even in the refrigerator? Answer: Mustard. Hot can mean spicy as well as warm.
Which invention lets you see straight through a wall? Answer: A window. A window is a hole in a wall with glass in it.
Which month does a tree like least? Answer: Sep-timber. Timber is what loggers shout when a tree falls.
Which pet makes the loudest noise? Answer: A trumpet. Trum-PET.

Trick one-liners 20

How can somebody go eight days without sleep? Answer: Sleep at night. The riddle says days, not nights.
How do you spell hungry horse in four letters? Answer: M-T-G-G. Say the letters aloud: empty gee-gee, an old pet name for a horse.
How long is a piece of string? Answer: Twice half. Any string is exactly twice as long as half of itself.
How many bricks does it take to finish a brick house? Answer: One. The last one finishes it.
What can fill a whole room and take up no space? Answer: Light. Light reaches every corner and leaves room for everything else.
What can you break without touching it? Answer: A promise. A promise is broken by not keeping it.
What can you swallow that is not food or drink? Answer: Your pride. To swallow your pride is to admit you were wrong.
What gets sharper the more you use it? Answer: Your brain. Thinking is the one kind of use that sharpens.
What is as big as an elephant and weighs nothing? Answer: Its shadow. A shadow has the size of the thing and no weight.
What is black when clean and white when dirty? Answer: A chalkboard. Chalk dust is what dirties it.
What is half of two plus two? Answer: Three. Half of two is one, and one plus two is three.
What kind of stones are never found in the ocean? Answer: Dry ones. Every stone in the ocean is wet.
What only starts to work after it has been fired? Answer: A rocket. Firing a rocket launches it.
What walks on four legs, then on two, then on three? Answer: A person. A baby crawls, a grown-up walks, and an old person leans on a cane.
What was the tallest mountain before Mount Everest was discovered? Answer: Mount Everest. It was the tallest whether or not anyone had measured it.
Which is right: 8 and 5 is 14, or are 14? Answer: Neither. 8 and 5 are 13.
Which tire does not turn when a car turns right? Answer: The spare tire. It rides in the trunk.
Who can jump higher than a house? Answer: Anybody. A house cannot jump at all.
Who has bad luck when a white cat crosses the path? Answer: A mouse. Any cat is bad luck for a mouse.
Who shaves twenty times a day and still has a beard? Answer: A barber. The barber shaves other people.

What has 20

What has a bow never tied and a stern never cross? Answer: A ship. The bow is the front of a ship and the stern is the back.
What has a cap and a stem and no head? Answer: A mushroom. The top of a mushroom is its cap.
What has a comb and never does its hair? Answer: A rooster. The red crest on a rooster's head is called a comb.
What has a cone and a crater and sometimes smokes? Answer: A volcano. A volcano is a cone-shaped mountain with a crater at the top.
What has a crown and no kingdom? Answer: A tooth. The part of a tooth you can see is called the crown.
What has a drum and no drumsticks? Answer: An ear. The eardrum is the thin skin inside the ear that sound shakes.
What has a floor, a bed and no ceiling? Answer: The ocean. The ocean floor and the seabed.
What has a head and gets hit on it all day? Answer: A nail. The flat top of a nail is its head.
What has a heart that never beats? Answer: An artichoke. The soft middle of an artichoke is called the heart.
What has a heel and no foot, and gets sliced? Answer: A loaf. The end slice of a loaf of bread is called the heel.
What has a lid and lashes and no jar? Answer: An eye. An eyelid and eyelashes.
What has a mouth and bats where the teeth should be? Answer: A cave. The opening of a cave is its mouth, and bats sleep inside.
What has a neck and strings and no head? Answer: A guitar. The long part of a guitar is its neck.
What has belts and no pants, and you buckle up inside? Answer: A car. Seat belts.
What has caps and bends when you sit? Answer: Your knees. Kneecaps.
What has rings and no fingers, and circles the Sun? Answer: Saturn. Saturn is the planet with bright rings.
What has shoulders and no arms? Answer: A road. The strip along the edge of a road is its shoulder.
What has six faces and twenty-one spots? Answer: A die. A die has six sides, and 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21.
What has steps and no stairs? Answer: A recipe. You follow a recipe step by step.
What has wings and an engine and no feathers? Answer: An airplane. Both birds and planes have wings; only planes have engines.

Everyday things 20

What can you crack without breaking anything? Answer: A joke. To crack a joke is to tell one.
What can you draw and then sit in? Answer: A bath. To draw a bath is to run the water for it.
What can you drop without making a sound? Answer: A hint. To drop a hint is to suggest something quietly.
What can you fold and never put in a drawer? Answer: Your arms. Folding your arms crosses them over your chest.
What can you hatch that never had a shell? Answer: A plan. To hatch a plan is to think one up.
What can you kick without using your foot? Answer: A habit. To kick a habit is to give it up.
What can you raise without lifting anything? Answer: Your voice. To raise your voice is to speak louder.
What do you catch without using your hands? Answer: A bus. Catching a bus means getting on it in time.
What do you charge and never pay for? Answer: A phone. Charging a phone fills its battery.
What do you fill with empty hands? Answer: Gloves. Your hands go in, and the gloves are full.
What do you jump to and never land on? Answer: Conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is deciding too fast.
What do you put on last and take off first? Answer: Your shoes. They go on after everything else on the way out, and come off at the door.
What do you save for a friend and never spend? Answer: A seat. Saving a seat keeps it free.
What do you shake to find out what is inside? Answer: A present. The rattle is a clue.
What do you throw on a birthday that nobody catches? Answer: A party. To throw a party is to give one.
What do you wave that cannot be seen or held? Answer: Goodbye. To wave goodbye is to wave your hand as somebody leaves.
What does a house wear? Answer: An address. Address sounds like a dress.
What gets dressed and never wears clothes? Answer: A salad. Dressing is the sauce poured over a salad.
What goes to bed with its shoes on? Answer: A horse. Horseshoes are nailed on and stay on.
What is the first thing you open every morning? Answer: Your eyes. Before the door, before the curtains.

How this list was compiled

Written by the Game Night Generator editors on October 3, 2026: 100 one-line riddles in five sets of 20. A script counted every line: no riddle is longer than twelve words and no answer longer than three. Many one-line riddles are as old as riddling and belong to nobody; the traditional ones here are retold in the editors' own words, the rest are the editors' own, and none was copied from a collection. Riddles that our sister site's riddle pages or another list of this site already tell were left out. The line under each answer says why it fits. The second meanings that the What has and Everyday riddles turn on (the crown of a tooth, the heart of an artichoke, the shoulder of a road, the comb of a rooster, the neck of a guitar, the heel of a loaf, to draw a bath, to hatch a plan) were read in the English Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org; text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license) on October 3, 2026. The three levels are the editors' judgment, and the page is not connected with Wiktionary. Licence: own work