Just Two Letters

Using just two letters, fill in the blank letters below to make five English words. The letters are not always in the same order and the same letter may of course be used more than once. What are the words?

1. _ N T _ I N _
2. V I _ _ _ R
3. _ H _ _ L
4. _ _ _ K
5. _ _ _

The two letters are E and W. They make the following words

1. ENTWINE
2. VIEWER
3. WHEEL
4. WEEK
5. EWE

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Can Kill People

I can kill people, or cause great pain.
You eat me.
I can mean you’re crazy.
I hold things together.
I help climbers stay safe.
I can replace a swear.
And I’m on a violin.

What am I?

Nuts.

People with nut allergies can die from eating nuts. Being hit in the nuts hurts (I speak from experience. Painful, painful experience). You eat nuts (unless you’re allergic, in which case you should run away). If someone says you’re nuts, it doesn’t mean you’re a peanut or an almond. Nuts and bolts hold things together. A climber’s nut or chock wedges into a rock. Instead of swearing, you can say, “Aww nuts!”. And finally, the nut on a violin is a small piece of hard material that supports the strings.

Posted in Riddles
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A Special-Sized Box

I have a box. The top has an area of 240 square inches, the side 300 square inches and the end 180 square inches. What are the dimensions of the box?

Length = 20
Width = 12
Depth = 15

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A Word That Has No End

I’m a five-letter word that has no end, Commit a sin? One through three can amend, One, four and five are something alive, Two and three occur near to thee.

What am I?

Abyss. aby is an archaic word meaning to pay the penalty for. An ass, otherwise known as a donkey, is alive and “by” is another way of saying near to you.

Posted in Riddles

An Extraordinary Event

On the sixth of May in the year 1978 at exactly thirty-four minutes past noon, a most extraordinary event occurred. This singular occasion will probably never be witnessed by anyone who was alive at that time. What happened?

The time and date was 12:34 5/6/78, counting from one to eight. The next time this event will occur is 12:34 6 May 2078. Unless someone alive in 1978 lives to be over a hundred, they won’t be alive when it happens again.

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English Word with Three Consecutive Double Letters

What English word has three consecutive double letters?

Bookkeeper (or bookkeeping). An alternate, tricky, answer could be Woollen (where W is a “double u”).

Posted in Riddles

Six Letter Word

What 6-letter word has the same pair of letters in spots 1 and 5, a different pair in spots 2 and 6 and contains a ‘u’ in between?

church, delude, inulin or recure

Posted in Brain Teasers

Plum Taking

A man without eyes saw plums on a tree.
He neither took them nor left them, how can this be?

The man had only one eye and took one plum. (note singular versus plural)

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The Bikes and The Bee

Two bikes are traveling toward each other at a constant speed of 10 mph. When the bikes are 20 miles apart, a bee flies from the front wheel of one of the bikes toward the other bike at a constant speed of 25 mph. As soon as it reaches the front wheel of the other bike, it immediately turns around and flies at 25 mph toward the first bike. It continues this pattern until the two bikes smush the bee between the two front tires.

How far did the bee travel?

25 miles.

The easiest way to think about this is to consider the time. The bikes will take 1 hour to touch, given that they start 20 miles apart and are each traveling toward each other at 10 mph.

Therefore the bee is buzzing back and forth at 25 mph for 1 hour.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Living to Six

How can you cross out four letters from the word LIVING to leave six remaining?

Cross out LING, leaving you with VI, or 6 in Roman numerals.

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