Riddles can be a fun way to challenge your mind and get you thinking outside of the box. In this article, we have compiled 107 riddles that are focused on the concept of “nothing.” These brain teasers play with the idea of emptiness, absence, and things that don’t exist. See if you can figure out the clever answers!
Opening paragraphs
Riddles have been used for centuries as a way to stimulate critical thinking. The best riddles work your mind through wordplay, double meanings, and metaphorical representations. Riddles about nothing are especially tricky because they require wrapping your head around imaginary concepts and things that are not present. Solving these types of riddles takes both creativity and logical reasoning.
While riddles are fun, they also help build mental acuity. Working through the abstract ideas presented in these brain teasers about nothing is great brain exercise. The mental gymnastics required for solving riddles can help strengthen your problem-solving skills. In addition, riddles encourage you to think more imaginatively and see things from different perspectives.
5 easy riddles about nothing
Riddle: What happens when you throw a green rock into the Red Sea?
Answer: It gets wet.
Riddle: What can you catch but never throw?
Answer: A cold.
Riddle: What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
Riddle: What has 13 hearts but no organs?
Answer: A deck of cards.
Riddle: What has to be broken before it can be used?
Answer: An egg.
5 medium riddles about nothing
Riddle: I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
Riddle: What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp.
Riddle: What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
Riddle: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
Riddle: What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
5 hard riddles about nothing
Riddle: What does man love more than life, hate more than death or mortal strife; that which contented men desire; the poor have, the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?
Answer: Nothing.
Riddle: The more there is, the less you see. What could it be?
Answer: Darkness.
Riddle: What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river.
Riddle: What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you?
Answer: Your name.
Riddle: People buy me to eat, but never eat me. What am I?
Answer: A plate.
5 funny riddles about nothing
Riddle: What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
Riddle: What starts with E, ends with E, and only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
Riddle: What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
Riddle: What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
Riddle: What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck.
10 short riddles about nothing
Riddle: What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge.
Riddle: What month of the year has 28 days?
Answer: All of them.
Riddle: What begins with T, ends with T, and is full of T?
Answer: A teapot.
Riddle: What gets wetter as it dries?
Answer: A towel.
Riddle: What can you break without ever touching it?
Answer: A promise.
Riddle: I have branches but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?
Answer: A bank.
Riddle: What has many teeth but cannot bite?
Answer: A comb.
Riddle: What has words but never speaks?
Answer: A book.
Riddle: What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
Answer: A glove.
Riddle: What can you catch but never throw?
Answer: A cold.
10 riddles about nothing for kids
Riddle: What has a face but no eyes, hands but no fingers?
Answer: A clock.
Riddle: I am light as a feather but the strongest person can’t hold me for long. What am I?
Answer: Breath.
Riddle: What goes up and down but always remains in the same place?
Answer: Stairs.
Riddle: What has a head, a tail, but no body?
Answer: A coin.
Riddle: What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: An airplane.
Riddle: What building has the most stories?
Answer: A library.
Riddle: What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: A tongue.
Riddle: What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
Riddle: David’s father has three sons. Two are named MindYourOwn and Trouble. What is the name of the third son?
Answer: David.
Riddle: What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence.
10 animal riddles about nothing
Riddle: What always runs but never walks, often murmurs but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, and has a mouth but never eats?
Answer: A river.
Riddle: What is easy to get into but hard to get out of?
Answer: Trouble.
Riddle: What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?
Answer: A human (crawling as a baby, walking upright as an adult, using a cane when old).
Riddle: What starts with “e” and ends with “e” and contains only one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
Riddle: What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you?
Answer: Your name.
Riddle: What goes up when rain comes down?
Answer: An umbrella.
Riddle: What is seen in the middle of March and April that can’t be seen at the beginning or end of either month?
Answer: The letter “R.”
Riddle: What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river.
Riddle: What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
Riddle: What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
10 random riddles about nothing
Riddle: What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
Riddle: What belongs to you but others use it more than you?
Answer: Your name.
Riddle: What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: An airplane.
Riddle: What has one foot on each side and one in the middle?
Answer: A yardstick.
Riddle: What has 13 hearts but no organs?
Answer: A deck of cards.
Riddle: What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
Riddle: What gets wetter as it dries?
Answer: A towel.
Riddle: What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
Riddle: What has cities but no houses, mountains but no trees?
Answer: A map.
Riddle: David’s father has three sons. Two are named MindYourOwn and Trouble. What is the name of the third son?
Answer: David.
10 long riddles about nothing
Riddle: I follow you all the time and copy your every move, but you can’t touch me or catch me. What am I?
Answer: Your shadow.
Riddle: What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
Riddle: The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
Answer: Footsteps.
Riddle: People buy me to eat but never eat me. What am I?
Answer: A plate.
Riddle: What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
Riddle: What is broken every time it’s spoken?
Answer: Silence.
Riddle: What starts with “e” and ends with “e” but only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
Riddle: What goes through towns and over hills but never moves?
Answer: A road.
Riddle: What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Answer: A penny.
Riddle: What can fill up a room without taking up space?
Answer: Light.
5 riddles about nothing with double meanings
Riddle: What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short. Short becomes shorter when adding ‘er’.
Riddle: What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock. Hand as in the indicator, not the body part.
Riddle: What has no beginning, end, or middle?
Answer: A doughnut.
Riddle: What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle. Neck as in the bottle’s neck, not a human neck.
Riddle: What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: A tongue. Better to taste with than to smell.
5 riddles about nothing that make you think
Riddle: What can you keep after giving to someone?
Answer: Your word.
Riddle: The more there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness.
Riddle: I turn around once. What is out will not get in. I turn around again. What is in will not get out. What am I?
Answer: A key.
Riddle: What can go up a chimney down, but can’t go down a chimney up?
Answer: An umbrella.
Riddle: What is broken without being held?
Answer: A promise.
5 funny riddles about nothing
Riddle: What rock group has four members that don’t sing?
Answer: Mount Rushmore.
Riddle: What starts with “e” and ends with “e” but only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
Riddle: A man jumped out of a plane without a parachute. Yet when he hit the ground, he was completely unharmed. How did he survive?
Answer: He jumped out of a plane that was still on the ground.
Riddle: What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck.
Riddle: What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: A tongue.
5 movie riddles about nothing
Riddle: What has a ring, but no finger?
Answer: A telephone.
Riddle: What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
Riddle: What has a face but can’t smile?
Answer: A clock.
Riddle: What goes up and down but always remains in the same place?
Answer: Stairs.
Riddle: What building has the most stories?
Answer: The library.
5 science riddles about nothing
Riddle: What travels around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp.
Riddle: What is weightless, can be seen by the naked eye, and if you put it in a barrel, it makes the barrel lighter?
Answer: A hole.
Riddle: What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light.
Riddle: What goes up and never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
Riddle: What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
5 riddles about nothing with answers for adults
Riddle: What gets wet as it dries?
Answer: A towel.
Riddle: What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Answer: A penny.
Riddle: What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
Riddle: What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
Riddle: I follow you all the time and copy your every move, but you can’t touch me or catch me. What am I?
Answer: Your shadow.
5 history riddles about nothing
Riddle: What monument is the tallest and largest in the world but still cannot stand up by itself?
Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza.
Riddle: Built long ago, I’m very strong and sturdy. I shelter people and store things inside. What am I?
Answer: A castle.
Riddle: I am where yesterday follows today and tomorrow is in the middle. What am I?
Answer: A dictionary or encyclopedia.
Riddle: George Washington’s soldiers could not stand me and would walk around every time I was near. What was I?
Answer: The letter ‘T’ or a tree.
Riddle: I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
5 food riddles about nothing
Riddle: What is full of holes but can still hold water?
Answer: A sponge.
Riddle: What is broken without being held?
Answer: An egg.
Riddle: What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: Your tongue.
Riddle: What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
Riddle: What has a ring but no fingers?
Answer: A phone.
5 riddles about nothing from literature
Riddle: What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows?
Answer: A mountain. From J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Riddle: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.
Answer: Darkness. From J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Riddle: This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down.
Answer: Time. From J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Riddle: What’s always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow. From Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Riddle: You can’t keep this until you have given it.
Answer: A promise. From C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
Conclusion
Riddles can be a great way to challenge your perceptions and improve your reasoning abilities. The riddles in this article focused on the concept of “nothing” – playing with empty space, absence, and things that don’t exist. Solving these thought-provoking riddles requires both creativity and critical thinking.
Riddles about nothing also inspire you to imagine various interpretations and double meanings. The abstraction involved provides great mental exercise. While silly at times, these brain teasers force you to scrutinize ideas and make connections you may have never made before.
Next time you are looking for a brain challenge, try your hand at these riddles about nothing. See if you can figure out the clever wordplay and puzzle out the solutions. You may just surprise yourself with the unconventional ideas your mind comes up with!