Four Legs in the Morning
It walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs in the evening. What is it?
Man (or woman). A baby crawls on all fours, then walks on two legs as an adult and uses two legs and a cane when they’re old.
Posted in Riddles
45 Comments on "Four Legs in the Morning"
Jose barbosa says
February 4, 2015 @ 16:20
A baby walks on its arms and knees when it’s 1 a man walks on 2 legs and an old man walks on his 2 legs plus his walker
Jose barbosa says
February 4, 2015 @ 16:21
But in easier terms a hunan
Jose barbosa says
February 4, 2015 @ 16:21
Human
Allen says
May 11, 2015 @ 15:44
A donkey: A donkey has four legs in the morning, then in the afternoon you chop two of them off, then in the evening you glue one back on again.
– Emo Philips
justin says
July 11, 2015 @ 23:16
Lol I cried at allens answer.:)
krup says
August 9, 2015 @ 01:55
The answer is simple. It’s a bumble beast it has all four legs when it wakes up. In the afternoon, two of them fall off. Then in the evening the bumble beast grows back another leg!!!! You people obviously don’t know what you’re talking about if you thought it was a human. Silly you. Have a nice day folks.
Kyle says
August 19, 2015 @ 04:07
So just what exactly does the time of day have to do with this? What is the relevancy?
Dan says
August 19, 2015 @ 10:59
@Kyle Morning refers to your childhood, afternoon is adulthood and evening is your later years.
Glenn D W says
September 17, 2015 @ 22:26
This question is COMPLETELY MISLEADING, and falls under the “annoyingly stupid” category.
My IQ is 181, and I could not solve this, because the “question” is worded to “strongly suggest” an “IMPOSSIBLE” living creature – human, animal, or other.
I could only conclude, that it would be something like a functioning robot, that performs different tasks during the day (remotely-controlled, autonomous, or pre-programmed), and its support carriage or “legs”, can easily be configured differently, to accomplish those tasks it was designed to do, in a certain time-frame.
— chew on THAT one for a while… —
Good evening……. or should I say: “Good old person”……. ?
Cathy says
October 5, 2015 @ 13:51
IT IS A MAN!!
It crawls on 4 legs when it is a baby.
It walks on 2 legs when adults.
It walks with a cane and 2 legs when elder
TLH says
October 7, 2015 @ 20:13
It is between a man and a bubble beast or the guy with the “181” IQ sure that’s true. NOT.
Chris D says
October 8, 2015 @ 22:37
Very inane weak and sub par riddle at best unless there are people who have the same life expectancy / cycle as a mayfly?
Dan says
October 9, 2015 @ 10:29
Hah! This riddle (the riddle of the Sphinx) is one of the oldest and most well-known riddles in the world.
christiana says
November 1, 2015 @ 15:45
Lol guys its very simple as drinking water (human)
kisakye Allan says
November 4, 2015 @ 05:35
that is the sun
in the morning it has four raws
two in the noon
3 in the evining
zak says
November 29, 2015 @ 22:12
none of them worked on riddle canyon on roblox
The Sphinx says
December 18, 2015 @ 20:05
Why dom’t some people know this? This is a very popular riddle and is the riddle of the Sphinx (my name). Don’t tell me you don’t know it? This is probably hard to solve, but almost everyone knows it. It is referring to the life of a man/woman. In the morning, (his/her early time of life) he/she crawls on it’s arms and knees. Therefore, he/she has 4 legs. In the afternoon, (middle aged) he walks on 2 legs. In the evening, (very old) he/she usually uses a cane, thus 3 legs.
Ash says
December 28, 2015 @ 23:21
When Oedipus reached Thebes, he encountered a Sphinx. “If you want to pass this point alive, you must answer my riddle: What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?”, the Sphinx asked. Oedipus pondered for a moment. “Probably one of those new Pokemon”, he finally replied. “There’s like 600 of them, I’d be surprised if one of them DOESN’T change its number of legs whilst evolving”. “Fair enough, man”, spoke the Sphinx. “I can’t reasonably expect you to remember all their names. You may pass.”
gowtham says
March 3, 2016 @ 12:22
The answer is oedipus himself this is his second riddle
Mel says
March 8, 2016 @ 01:15
I knew about this riddle and answer for a while, but if I heard it the first time, human never would have crossed my mind.
I mean, how do you know the riddle is being metaphorical? I know riddles can be vague, but c’mon :/
Glen is a tit says
March 19, 2016 @ 05:28
Glen no way is your IQ 181 haha.
Idiot.
Mage maker says
September 4, 2016 @ 12:41
Human. It crawls, then walks, finally used a cane
Aborigart says
November 14, 2016 @ 16:11
The Bumble beast good night tale sounds as funny as believable, I would tell it to my kids to put them to sleep. Now I have a question for the guy with the 181 IQ; do you read much at all, and I am not talking about sci-fi books or comics, you seem to know much about that, I am refering to books where they use a very coon writing technique to describe thoughts…
I will give it to you; Metaphor!!! Bingo the whole riddle is just that; a metaphor.
Human would be right, in my opinion. But I only have an IQ of (-181)
Thanks
Geneticallysuperior says
November 24, 2016 @ 22:22
What is a day to something as ancient as the sphinx. As it states in the bible, to god, a thousand years is like a day. The meaning of which is, what is time to one who is eternal? The problem with most intellectuals is they try to quantify something which is unquantifiable…
Elocin says
November 28, 2016 @ 10:00
Four legs ??? Humans do not have four legs. This is the dumbest riddle iv ever heard. The time of day makes no sense. And a cane is not a leg. Wtf kind of riddle is this ???
tristen says
November 30, 2016 @ 14:07
its the sphinx. this is an ancient greece riddle wow all u guys are dumb
Boogle says
November 30, 2016 @ 16:33
It is stupid ..any one with any inteligence oho can spell.lol….Or even thinks about the question is gonna get confuied about the times of day ..# wtf .der
Jacob says
December 4, 2016 @ 08:47
(Alot right) its a human I’ve been telling this for years only one person ever got it right its the cane that gets um in ancient times the cane was called the 3rd leg.(what walks on 4 in the beginning of its day 2 in the middle of its day and 3 at the end of its day) this is how it was told to me 30yrs ago i was told its one of the oldest riddles on ?:-)
Arundeep says
December 12, 2016 @ 08:56
I think that is a human
Dyisis says
December 18, 2016 @ 13:56
Omg in tears reading this @Ash that was fricking hilarious. Love the personality. ??????
Zeek says
December 20, 2016 @ 05:44
Any four legged creature
It walks on four legs in the morning
It walks on four legs at two in the afternoon and at three in the morning as well
The wording in the question is a bit off but not as far off as it is for the human answer
a cane does have a foot and you do walk on it, the times so metaphorically make sense, but no matter how it walks or crawls a normal baby only has two feet
The riddle makes no sense
Dean says
February 2, 2017 @ 09:43
Human being
xavier anderson says
March 18, 2017 @ 22:31
the answer is man
Susan Johann says
March 26, 2017 @ 00:38
I’m a human and I’m on two legs at all times of the day. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s not lame.
janiya says
April 19, 2017 @ 12:51
i no that from pus and boots from the sfixs
Daron reid says
June 26, 2017 @ 16:57
The answer is human being
Rockett says
July 7, 2017 @ 23:34
Its metaphorical now.
Its kind of a stretch in modern english.
Its clever qualities are kind of lost to translation.
Dawn and twilight refer metaphorically to periods of life now but in the past the words for morning noon and evening were sometimes literally the words that referred to stages of life.
Most of the words would have had double meanings in ancient greek or latin. I wont waste time going through all the iterations of this riddle but i think translating it to what “goes” rather than what “walks” is the more accurate version.
Here are just some of the double meanings that would have made this more clever in the past.
Mane= morning, early, early on
go,walk, run are often the same word
ancient greek for leg can also mean any piece of a group of identical pieces
(probably why earlier versions make it a point to say this thing also has a voice since this could be taken to mean wheels)
I’d compare it to “What has a head and tail and no legs?” = a coin.
Heads and tails when referring to a coin is somewhat restricted in both time period and language. The double meaning is apparent to us but would make little sense in many other languages, until the person knows the answer and could then say ” I guess I could see how a head and tail could be talking about a coin”
Rockett says
July 8, 2017 @ 00:17
Additionally, the words for morning, noon, and evening would have literally referred to any beginning, middle and end.
So, in the past it would have been something more like:
What has a voice, goes on four parts in the beginning, two parts in the middle and three parts at the end.
If the word for parts also meant legs, beginning middle and end inferred time of day but didn’t necessarily mean time of day and old people commonly used canes colloquially referred to as “third legs”
Jose T says
July 4, 2019 @ 13:09
The morning, afternoon, and evening refer to your lifespan. When you were a baby (morning) you crawled on all fours, in the middle of your life (afternoon) you walk on just 2 legs and when you’re old (evening) you walk with a cane aka the 3rd leg.
Rafe Mohammad says
March 24, 2020 @ 12:59
The answer is a human because I watched a movie that says the riddle and the answer so the answer is a human because the morning is the start of your lifespan when you are a baby you crawl when you are able to walk without a walking stick, you have two legs and the afternoon is when you are elderly and you need a walking stick which adds up to three legs
Cadi says
March 26, 2020 @ 16:17
I don’t know, but I trapped it in my bedroom. Send help.
Bingo says
April 3, 2020 @ 21:05
Its not a human. It is a journey with (4) legs. When first starting out (young) there are (4) legs to go. When halfway there, there are (2) legs to go. When nearly there (old), (3) legs have been completed.
... says
May 31, 2020 @ 18:59
humans do not walk on 4 legs in the morning, 2 at noon and 3 in the evening. dumb riddle…
Ayo people says
June 10, 2020 @ 14:24
It is a flippin’ human. The time given here refers to the stages of life, childhood, adulthood and elderly ages. The one with 181 IQ, dude how did you even think that much..?! I guess you put an extra 1 at the end.
William says
November 3, 2020 @ 18:35
I figured it had something to do with shadows…. But with the three in the evening my mind went to a naughty place involving men…. In the evening…. But then, I thought, the morning is more likely to have 3 waking up with morning timber….
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