Five Letters But One Left When Two Removed

What word of five letters has only one left when two letters are removed?

Any 5-letter word with the word ‘one’ somewhere in it. Examples include shone, stone, alone, money, loner, phone or ornery. Note it doesn’t say there is only one letter left, but only ‘one’ left. Tricky tricky.

Posted in Riddles

Lots and Lots of Granola Bars

Marla needs snacks for the students on her field trip. She bought 9 boxes of granola bars containing a total of 88 bars. She wanted variety, so she bought 3 different flavors, which happened to come from 3 different companies.

The Coconut Almond bars were packaged 8 to a box.
The Chewy Chocolate Chip bars came 10 to a box.
The Oats ‘n Honey package contained 12 per box.

She bought the most boxes of Coconut Almond but had the most Oats ‘n Honey bars.

How many of each did she buy?

Coconut Almond: 4 boxes × 8 in a box = 32 bars
Chewy Chocolate Chip: 2 boxes × 10 in a box = 20 bars
Oats ‘n Honey: 3 boxes × 12 in a box = 36 bars

Posted in Brain Teasers

Nine-Letter Word, Common as Air

A nine-letter word, common as air,
When each letter’s cut, a new word to pare,
Take a letter each round and continue to one.
Name the word and the path and then you’ll be done.

Surprisingly, there are several nine-letter words that can have one letter removed in each round to make a new word all the way to one letter, which must be ‘a’ or ‘i’. Startling is the most common answer, but I’ve included the other words I’m aware of. I don’t include plural words, like cleansers, drownings, splatters, starvings, trappings and wrappings because it’s kind of cheating.

startling
Remove the l to make starting (or remove the t to make starling)
Remove the t to make staring
Remove the a to make string
Remove the r to make sting
Remove the t to make sing
Remove the g to make sin
Remove the s to make in
Remove the n to make I

splitting
Remove the l to make spitting
Remove the p to make sitting
Remove a t to make siting
Remove the first i to make sting
Remove the s to make ting
Remove the g to make tin
Remove the t to make in
Remove the n to make I

stringier
Remove the r to make stingier
Remove the i to make stinger
Remove the t to make singer
Remove the r to make singe
Remove the g to make sine
Remove the e to make sin
Remove the s to make in
Remove the n to make I

strapping
Remove the s to make trapping
Remove the t to make rapping
Remove the p to make raping
Remove the r to make aping
Remove the a to make ping
Remove the g to make pin
Remove the p to make in
Remove the n to make I

Posted in Riddles

No Ears and More Than One Eye

I have no ears, but more than one eye,
Cut me in half, I won’t cry,
Leave me alone and I will die.

What am I?

A potato. The roots growing out of a potato are called eyes, when you cut a potato in half it doesn’t produce any moisture and if you leave a poor potato to its own devices, it will die.

Posted in Riddles

Many and One

They are many and one,
They wave and they drum,
Used to cover a stare,
They go with you everywhere.

Your hands.

Posted in Riddles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 100

This equation is incomplete: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 100

One way to make it accurate is by adding seven plus and minus signs, like so.

1 + 2 + 3 – 4 + 5 + 6 + 78 + 9 = 100

How can you do it using only 3 plus or minus signs?

123 – 45 – 67 + 89 = 100

Posted in Brain Teasers

It’s True I Bring Serenity

It’s true I bring serenity,
And hang around the stars
But yet I live in misery;
You’ll find me behind bars
With thieves and villains I consort
In prison I’ll be found
But I would never go to court,
Unless there’s more than one

The letter “s”.

Posted in Riddles

A Medication of Three Parts

I’m a medication with three parts. The first part is the surname of someone who has been a Mary and a Maria. The second part is a vital organ and the last is plentiful in the ocean.

What am I?

Andrews Liver Salts, an antacid. Julie Andrews played the role of Mary Poppins in the movie of the same name, and Maria in the Sound of Music. It’s tough to live without a liver and a taste of the ocean always includes a touch of salt.

Posted in Riddles

Word Pairs to Create a New Word

One letter can be used to replace the first letter of each word pair below to create two new English words. The new letters can then be combined to spell a word. What is that word?

MAIL ____ PINK
CART ____ SAID
GRID ____ RIMLESS
LINK ____ BOUND
ROWED ____ RIPPLE

SMART

SAIL – SINK
MART – MAID
ARID – AIMLESS
RINK – ROUND
TOWED – TIPPLE

Posted in Brain Teasers

Word Value Of 52

If every letter of the alphabet is worth its numerical value (A=1, B=2, C=3), what’s a common 11-letter word whose letter values total only 52?

Abracadabra

Posted in Brain Teasers