Dirty Rebus

What does this represent?

    D
    I
D I R T Y
    T
    Y

Dirty double crosser. (Thanks to Ian for the answer)

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Only Self-Enumerating Number

What is the only self-enumerating number in English?

Four. The number four has four letters, making it self-enumerating. Interestingly, there are no self-enumerating numbers in French.

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Al and Fred’s Car Wash

Al washes a car in 6 minutes. Fred washes the same car in 8 minutes. How long will it take them to wash the car together?

There isn’t enough information, thus there’s no one, right answer. (As frustrating as that may be)

This is from the TV show Boy Meets World, season 1 episode 12.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Shortest Word With All the Vowels

What is the shortest word in the English language to contain all of the vowels?

Sequoia, eulogia or miaoued are all good options, but there’s an even shorter (and more obscure) word with all the vowels and not a single consonant: Iouea. It’s not the kind of word you’d use at the dinner table, but it’s listed in the Wikipedia dictionary as a genus of Cretaceous fossil sponges.

If you got really tricky and tried to find a word that contained the letters in the phrase ‘all of the vowels’, you probably found, like I did, that there isn’t one. But it was still worth checking.

Posted in Brain Teasers

13579U

What does this represent?

13579U

The odds are against you. All of the odd single-digit numbers are lined up next to the letter u, representing the word you.

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Nearly A Victory, Quickly I Pass

Nearly a victory,
Quickly I pass,
A request of the chair,
I’m silver, not brass.

What am I?

Second. Second place is next to winning. Seconds, the measure of time, pass quickly. Seconding a motion is requested by the chair of the body in Parliament. And the second place finisher in many sporting events such as the Olympics is awarded the silver medal.

And as for why the unit of time is called a second, it goes back to the days of Ptolemy. A second of time is the second small part, or pars minuta secunda, of an hour. (Thanks to Tim J for researching it).

Posted in Riddles

Greater Than God

It is greater than God and more evil than the devil. The poor have it, the rich need it and if you eat it you’ll die. What is it?

Nothing. Nothing is greater than God, nothing is more evil than the devil, the poor have nothing, the rich need nothing and if you eat nothing you’ll die.

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Can Only Be Given, Not Taken Or Bought

It may only be given,
Not taken or bought,
What the sinner desires,
But the saint does not.

Forgiveness.

Posted in Riddles

Rhyming Anagrams

There are four pairs of words below. Rearrange one of the words in the pair to form a word that rhymes with the other word. For example, if you had the following pair of words:

FRINGE LINGER

You would rearrange FRINGE into FINGER, which rhymes with LINGER. You can rearrange the letters of either word.

1. MOPIER PERIOD
2. GHOULS SCRUFF
3. JAILED LEVIED
4. WEIGHT ARTIST

1. DOPIER
2. SLOUGH
3. VEILED
4. STRAIT

Posted in Brain Teasers

Seven Letters and Something You Eat

I have seven letters and am something you eat. My only anagram can help your pain. If you remove my first 2 letters I wear things down. Removing my first 3 letters is an adjective and removing my first 4 letters leaves a measure of time.

What am I?

Sausage. You eat sausage, assuage is the only single-word anagram and provides relief from pain. Usage wears things down, sage is an adjective and age is a measure of time.

Posted in Riddles