40 Riddles for Adults

1. I show up every month, nobody is ever happy to see me, and paying me keeps the lights on. What am I?

2. I'm the trip you make twice a day, five days a week, mostly staring at the car in front of you. What am I?

3. I fit your whole working life onto one or two pages, and I get sent out every time you want a new job. What am I?

4. No matter how many times you finish me, I'm back in the basket by next week. What am I?

5. Press me once and I give you nine more minutes, then I make you pay for them all morning. What am I?

6. Every kitchen has one of me: spare batteries, rubber bands, takeout menus and a key nobody can identify. What am I?

7. People leave messages in me all day, and almost nobody ever listens to them. What am I?

8. I'm a bedsheet with elastic corners, and no adult alive can fold me into a neat square. What am I?

9. I live on your ceiling and stay quiet for years, then chirp at three in the morning when my battery runs low. What am I?

10. I control everything on the TV but spend half my life lost between the couch cushions. What am I?

11. I have a long metal tongue that snaps back into my mouth, and I know exactly how wide your sofa is. What am I?

12. I bite paper together with a satisfying crunch, but I've never eaten a thing. What am I?

13. I'm a long green snake that drinks from the tap and spits on the garden. What am I?

14. I'm covered in sharp little holes, and whatever you rub against me comes out shredded. What am I?

15. I have a hook for a head and shoulders but no body, and I spend my whole life in a closet. What am I?

16. I eat dirt for a living, I roar while I work, and the cat is terrified of me. What am I?

17. I sit on the stove, and when I get hot enough, I whistle for attention. What am I?

18. I'm hot, heavy and flat on the bottom, and I erase wrinkles, but only from fabric. What am I?

19. I have number buttons and an electronic display, and I do sums in your pocket. What am I?

20. I give the yard a haircut every weekend in summer. What am I?

21. Which word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary?

22. I'm full of cells, but I'm not a body or a prison, and accountants love me. What am I?

23. Which five-letter word still reads the same when you turn it upside down?

24. My first two letters make a man, my first three a woman, my first four a brave person and all seven a brave woman. What word am I?

25. In this wordplay riddle, which word has a mile between its first and last letters?

26. What breaks every morning without falling, and what falls every evening without breaking?

27. Add one letter to the word ONE and it disappears completely. Which word do you get?

28. I'm twelve with a bonus, the number of rolls a generous baker counts out. What am I?

29. I mean 'no place at all', but split me in two and I'm right here, right now. What word am I?

30. Spell me backward and I turn into dessert, which might explain a lot about adulthood. What word am I?

31. Three switches downstairs control one incandescent bulb upstairs. You may go upstairs once. What clue, besides whether it is lit, helps identify the switch?

32. Looking at a portrait, a man says: 'Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son.' Who is in the portrait?

33. How many times can you subtract 5 from 25?

34. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 together. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much is the ball?

35. If 5 machines take 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would 100 machines take to make 100 widgets?

36. A patch of lily pads doubles in size every day and covers the whole pond in 48 days. When did it cover half the pond?

37. A butcher is six feet tall and wears size eleven shoes. What does he weigh?

38. What can you hold for hours without ever touching it?

39. One envelope has only red cards, one only blue cards, and one both colors. Labels RED, BLUE and MIXED are all wrong. Which labeled envelope must you sample to identify all three by drawing one card?

40. Two kids were born on the same day, in the same year, to the same mother, but they aren't twins. How?