What Once Was Red Is Black Instead

Tear one off and scratch my head, what once was red is black instead. What am I?

A match. You tear a match out of a matchbook and scratch the head to light it, then the red tip turns black from the flame.

This is an exact duplicate of Tear One Off and Scratch My Head but I’m leaving it to avoid broken links.

Posted in Riddles

Something Dark Inside

Comes as wooden as a tree,
Covered in paint, don’t you see,
Makes you laugh, or run and hide,
For it has something dark inside.

A pencil. It’s wooden, is covered in paint and the output of a pencil in the form of writing or art can make you laugh or cry. And graphite is the dark part inside.

Posted in Riddles

Characters In The Correct Order

Put the characters C D M L X in the correct order (not alphabetical).

X (10), L (50), C (100), D (500), M (1000). They’re Roman numerals in order from smallest to largest.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Consecutive Christmas Caroling

My family sings Christmas carols at the hospital where my wife works.
We do this every year and since we started, have not missed a single year.
The next time we do this will be the 18th consecutive Christmas.
My 15 year old daughter has been every time.

How is this possible?

She was born in March 1999 so the first year she came was December 1999 (before her 1st birthday).
Her first time was when she was 0, second time when she was 1, third time when she was 2, etc…

Now that she is 15, she has been 16 times. Oh and of course she was also present in December 1998 in her mum’s belly, due to be born the next March.

So, a total of 17 times and next time will be the 18th.

Thanks to Michael for submitting this real-life brain teaser about his family.

Posted in Brain Teasers

My First Wears My Second

My first wears my second; my third might be
What my first would acquire if he went to the sea.
Put together my one, two, three
And the belle of New York is the girl for me.

Manhattan. A MAN wears a HAT, and a MAN might acquire a TAN if he went to sea.

Posted in Riddles

Same Forward, Backward and Upside Down

What word is the same written forward, backward and upside down?

NOON. The word needs to be a palindrome and made up of only these letters that look the same upside down:

H I N O S X Z

For instance, SOON doesn’t work, because even though each letter looks the same upside down, it reads NOOS.

Posted in Riddles

Throw Away Outside, Cook Inside

You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?

An ear of corn.

Posted in Riddles

The Long River

How many times does the letter S appear in the name of the longest river in the world?

Zero. The Nile is the longest river in the world. Some claim the Amazon as the longest, but that too has no “S”es (that looks weird but I don’t know how else to write the plural of “s”). The Mississippi is the 4th largest river in the world according to a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_by_length”>Wikipedia.

Posted in Riddles

At Birth It Can’t Start Nor By Death Is It Ended

More precious than gold, but cannot be bought,
Can never be sold, only earned if it’s sought,
If it is broken it can still can be mended,
At birth it can’t start nor by death is it ended.

Friendship. It is more precious than gold to have a genuine friend, and true friendship cannot be bought or sold, only earned. When a friendship is broken it can be fixed and infants aren’t able to make friends until they’re older, but death can’t end it. Love doesn’t work as an answer because a friendship requires two people to interact, while parents love their children as soon as they’re born.

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