Riddles and Brain Teasers

The Same Forward, Backwards or Upside Down

What word can be written forward, backward or upside down while still remaining the same word?

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NOON.

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Longest Word Without Repeating Letters

What is the longest word without any repeated letters?

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Uncopyrightable, with 15 letters and not a single one repeated. Dermatoglyphics, the study of fingerprints, works too.

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Against the Rules for You to Play Fair

It’s against the rules for you to play fair,
I always win but you don’t care,
I’ve ruined lives and crushed dreams,
But the allure is too much it seems.

What am I?

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A casino. If you use methods to make the odds more fair to you, they kick you out. The house always wins, yet people continue to play. Gambling has ruined countless lives and crushed dreams of making millions, but the hope of winning continues to draw people in.

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Tagged with What am I?

Only Useful When Full

I am only useful when I’m full,
Yet I am always full of holes.

What am I?

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A sieve, used for straining food like pasta.

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Kevlar, Fire Escapes and Wipers, Oh My!

What do computer compilers, kevlar, fire escapes and windshield wipers all have in common?

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They were all invented by women.A variation of this brain teaser includes laser printers (they were invented by Gary Starkweather) and bulletproof vests (invented by Casimir Zeglen using silk, though modern vests use Kevlar, so it’s halfway right).

They were all invented by women.

A variation of this brain teaser includes laser printers (they were invented by Gary Starkweather) and bulletproof vests (invented by Casimir Zeglen using silk, though modern vests use Kevlar, so it’s halfway right).

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What Surrounds The World

What surrounds the world, yet dwells within a thimble?

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Space.

Posted in Riddles

Word With All 26 Letters

What word contains all 26 letters?

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Alphabet (unfortunately there aren’t any actual dictionary words with every letter in the alphabet, so this gimmicky, somewhat unsatisfying answer has to suffice).

Posted in Riddles

Sleeping Killer

A man gets ready for bed at 9:45 pm. He makes himself a drink, then turns off the TV and the lights. The night was windy and there was a major storm. The next day he discovers he was the cause of seven deaths. How is this possible?

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He lived in a lighthouse as lighthouse keeper. He turned off all the lights by accident, so a ship with 7 passengers couldn’t negotiate the rocky shores. One would think the light switches in a lighthouse would be more clearly marked.

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Word Jumble

Frederick takes half of CONNIE, part of NESTA, part of NELLIE and part of AUNTIE to create something new. What does he call his new creation?

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Constantine

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Making Lots of Shirts

In a textile factory, 5 machines take exactly 5 minutes to make 5 shirts. How many minutes will it take 100 machines to produce 100 shirts?

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5 minutes. It takes each machine 5 minutes to make a shirt, so if you have all 100 machines running at the same time, they’ll produce the 100 shirts in 5 minutes.

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