Whether you grew up hearing the best riddles during moonlight tales, at school, or while joking around with friends, one thing is clear: Nigerians love a good riddle. It’s how we stimulate our brains, bond with others, and enjoy witty banter.
We asked Nigerians to send in their favourite riddles, and they didn’t disappoint. These are the kinds of riddles you’d hear at home, in class, on road trips, or during small gist at work.
This list brought together over 100 riddles with answers that Nigerians actually enjoy — not just recycled ones from the internet. You’ll find tricky riddles, funny ones, adult and kid-friendly picks, hard riddles, and even a few riddles you can try on your crush (they might fall for the riddle and you).
Take your time, rack your brain, and save your favourites!
Tricky Riddles with Answers
These tricky riddles with answers will make you second-guess yourself more than once. We’ve included a mix of short tricky riddles, some funny ones, and a few that are perfect for adults, students, and even kids who enjoy clever wordplay.
- The more you take out of me, the bigger I become
Answer: A hole
- I am always spinning, but I have no clothes? What am I?
Answer: A spider
- You can see me in water, but I never get wet. What am I?
Answer: A reflection
- I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water. What am I?
Answer: A map
- I’m always coming, but I never arrive. What am I?
Answer: Tomorrow
- Though I don’t speak, I can express how you feel. What am I?
Answer: Eyes
- What can you put in a bucket to make it weigh less?
Answer: A hole
- You see me once in June, twice in November, not at all in May.
Answer: The letter “E”
- No one has seen me, never will, but everyone trusts me.
Answer: Tomorrow
- What is harder to catch the faster you run?
Answer: Your breath
- I have keys but cannot open doors. I make music but am not a singer. What am I?
Answer: A piano
- What travels around the world but stays in one spot?
Answer: A stamp
- I stand when you stand, sit when you sit, walk when you walk and run when you run. What am I?
Answer: Your shadow
Riddles for Kids with Answers
These are the kinds of riddles that make kids light up. You’ll find easy riddles, tricky ones that make them think twice, and funny riddles that are just plain silly. If you’ve been looking for clean, brain-boosting fun that kids actually enjoy, this section’s for you.
- What eats with the king and doesn’t clear the table?
Answer: A fly
- I have teeth, but I can’t chew. I am always in your room but never sleep. What am I?
Answer: A comb
- Children love my first name but hate my second name. What am I?
Answer: Sugarcane
- What goes up empty handed and comes down with water?
Answer: Coconut
- What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a year?
Answer: The letter “M”
- I wake the whole village, but I never leave my house. What am I?
Answer: A cock (rooster)
- I don’t have teeth, but I can bite; I don’t have hands, but I can hold you. What am I?
Answer: Cold
- I have a belly, but I’ve never given birth. Who am I?
Answer: A drum
- A peacock lays five eggs in a day. How many eggs will it lay in 15 days?
Answer: Peacock doesn’t lay eggs
- I am a room that no one can enter. What am I?
Answer: Mushroom
- Mr Red lives in a red house, Mr Blue lives in a blue house. Who lives in the White House?
Answer: The president
- Tell me what has one part but covers the whole world.
Answer: The moon
- I come in the night and disappear in the morning without being stolen.
Answer: Star
- In a one-storey pink house, everything is pink. What color are the stairs?
Answer: There are no stairs
- I have no feet, no hands, no wings, but I climb to the sky.
Answer: Smoke
- What’s the difference between a seamstress and a nurse?
Answer: One cuts dresses, one dresses cuts
- I have no eyes, but I help you see.
Answer: Torch
- Two brothers live opposite each other, but they never see each other. Who are they?
Answer: The eyes
- What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: W
- I wish yesterday were tomorrow, today would’ve been Friday. What day was the speaker talking?
Answer: Sunday
- We are three brothers that keep chasing but never catch each other.
Answer: A fan
- What has two hands but can’t scratch?
Answer: A clock
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Riddles for Adults with Answers
Not all riddles are child’s play. These riddles for adults with answers are made to challenge how you think, spark debate, or just make you laugh at how wrong you were.
- I’m always in your face, but disappear when your crush walks by. What am I?
Answer: Confidence
- What cloth did God wash that doesn’t dry?
Answer: Tongue
- I am something, I kiss my mother before I die. What am I?
Answer: A matchstick
- I am always behind you but you can barely see me. What am I?
Answer: Past
- I am always in front of you but you can’t see me. What am I?
Answer: Future
- I am something, people always beg before they use me.
Answer: Cream
- I visit every home but nobody wants me to stay.
Answer: Hunger
- Ẹyẹ wo l’ó mọ ‘chop life’, ṣùgbọ́n kì í jẹ pé kò ní fi ẹsẹ rẹ san ẹsan?
Answer: Ẹyẹ àlùkò
- I am something; sometimes I dress in white, sometimes in brown, sometimes both. You must make fire before you use me.
Answer: Cigarette
- I am made out of rubber, you use me for protection, you use your fingers to put me on and get me off. What am I?
Answer: Gloves
- There is a boat filled with people, but no single person on board.
Answer: Everyone is married
- Two people were born at the same time yet they are not twins.
Answer: Triplets
Super Funny Riddles with Answers
This list of super funny riddles with answers is perfect when you need something light and entertaining, whether you’re joking with friends, entertaining kids, or sending chaos into the group chat.
- What do you call a chicken that minds its business?
Answer: A laid-back broiler
- I am something, people hate me but they clap for me
Answer: Mosquito
- I dey jam you without touching you. I can make you late, give you headache, and even test your patience. Who am I?
Answer: Lagos traffic
- I wear cap, but I no be chief. I dey everywhere for Naija party, wetin I be?
Answer: Cooler
- I no dey for bank, but I dey make people dey check balance everyday. Wetin I be?
Answer: Data
- Why is Europe like a frying pan?
Answer: Because it has Greece at the bottom
- I am something that can be cracked, played, told or made. What am I?
Answer: A joke
- I visit your home like a thief in the night. Sometimes I stay, sometimes I disappear. When I arrive, children scream with glee. When I leave, you shout at me. I’m more famous than the president. But I’m never consistent!
Answer: NEPA
- What did one toilet say to the other?
Answer: You look flushed
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Hard Riddles with Answers
This list of 50 hard riddles with answers is made for people who love a challenge!
- What has no life but can grow, has no lungs but needs air, has no mouth but can drown?
Answer: Fire.
- What can be broken but can never be held? What can be given but can never be sold?
Answer: A promise
- I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo
- What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence
- What word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly
- I build up as you confess, but vanish when you rest. I grow heavier the longer you ignore me, yet I weigh nothing. What am I?
Answer: Guilt
- He that makes it sells it, he that buys it doesn’t use it, he that uses it doesn’t know he’s using it. What is it?
Answer: Coffin
- I am a fruit — remove my first and last letters, I become music. Remove my first letter, I become a crime. Remove the first two, I become an animal. What am I?
Answer: Grape
- A long-legged bird that eats with its feet.
Answer: A hoe
- Two people are walking in the rain, but only one gets wet.
Answer: Pregnant woman
- I’m wrapped in hide but I don’t moo.
Answer: Leather bag
- What is in the middle of a sea?
Answer: The letter E
- I have eyes but cannot see, a crown but not a king, I can run yet have no legs. I fall and the world celebrates.
Answer: A palm tree
- I walk without feet, speak every language, can be broken, never bleed. Sometimes loud, sometimes silent.
Answer: A radio
- I have no legs, yet I chase people. No hands, yet I slap. No eyes, yet I make people cry. I’m free but feared.
Answer: Harmattan
- A dad and son crash, go to different hospitals. The doctor says “I can’t operate on you, you’re my son.”
Answer: The doctor is his mom
- I carry silence in my stride, yet crowds bend when I arrive. My crown is heat, my robe is dust, who am I that kings both fear and trust?
Answer: Death
- I like to twirl my body but keep my head up high. After I go in, everything becomes tight. What am I?
Answer: A screw
- Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.
Answer: Bees in a lion carcass
- What is that English word? The first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters is a great man and the whole word is a great woman.
Answer: Heroine
- A woman is reading in a dark room with no lights. How?
Answer: She is blind and reading Braille
- There is one that has a head without an eye, and one that has an eye without a head. You may find the answer if you try; and when all is said, half the answer hangs upon a thread. What are we?
Answer: Pins and needles
- I have no door or window, but people still enter me.
Answer: Coffin
- What does a liar do when he’s dead?
Answer: He lies still
- I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space…
Answer: The letter “E”
- You draw a line. Without touching it, how do you make the line longer?
Answer: Draw a shorter line next to it
- I eat and eat but never get full.
Answer: Fire
- What is the longest word in the dictionary?
Answer: Smiles. Because there’s a ‘mile’ between each ‘S’
- What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold
- What has three legs but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A stool
- What spits before sitting down?
Answer: A candle
- What has 13 hearts but no other organ?
Answer: Deck of cards
- The more you take, the more you leave behind.
Answer: Footsteps
- If 2 is a company and 3 is a crowd, what are 4 and 5?
Answer: The number 9
- A father and a son were driving home in a car and then they had an accident. The father died and the son suffered a serious injury but was rushed to the hospital. When the son got to the hospital, the doctor said ” I cannot operate on my son”. Who is the doctor?
Answer: His mother
- A horse rider left his village for a distant land on Tuesday; he spent 35 hours on the road (without stopping anywhere) and 48 hours at the place. He spent 38 hours on the way back (without stopping anywhere), yet he arrived on Tuesday. How come?
Answer: The horse is Tuesday
- If I have it, I don’t share it. If I share it, I don’t have it.
Answer: Secret
- I have a head but never weep. I have a bed but never sleep. I run but never walk. What am I?
Answer: A river
- What passes the king’s house and doesn’t stop to pay homage?
Answer: Flood
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Easy Riddles with Answers
Sometimes, you just want riddles that are fun and easy to crack. This list of 10 easy riddles with answers is perfect for warmups, first-timers, or anyone who just wants to smile without twisting their brain into knots.
- I have a head, I have a tail, but I have no body. What am I?
Answer: A coin
- What has many keys but never opens a single lock?
Answer: A keyboard
- My parents have a child who is not my brother or sister…
Answer: Me
- I am tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A candle
- What starts with an E, ends with an E and contains only one letter?
Answer: Envelope
- Mary’s father has 5 daughters – Nana, Nene, Nini, Nono. What is the fifth daughter’s name?
Answer: Mary
- How can a pants pocket be empty and still have something in it?
Answer: It has a hole
- This belongs to you, but everyone else uses it.
Answer: Your name
- What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Age
- What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short
Extra Hard Riddles With Answers
These are not your everyday riddles. The ones here are some of the riddles that leave even the smartest people second-guessing.
- You walk into a dark room. In the room there is only an oil lantern, a candle and a fireplace. Which do you light first?
Answer: You can’t. You don’t have anything to light them with.
- A widow received a phone call from a stranger saying that her recently deceased husband owed the caller thousands of dollars in unpaid bills for photographs of naked women and if she didn’t pay him the money he would go to the newspapers and expose her dead husband to shame. The widow immediately told the caller that she wouldn’t pay him the money as she knew he was lying. Why was the widow so confident that the man was trying to extort money and was a liar?
Answer: Her deceased husband had been blind from birth and so wouldn’t have ordered pictures of naked women
- You see a boat filled with people. It hasn’t sunk, but when you look again, you don’t see a single person on board. Why?
Answer: All the people were married.
- I’m light as a feather, but even the world’s strongest person can’t hold me for more than a minute. What am I?
Answer: Your breath.
- What has fifteen diamonds but isn’t rich?
Answer: A deck of cards.
- I am the beginning of everything, the end of everywhere. I’m essential to eternity, yet inside of time. What am I?
Answer: The letter “E”.
- What has leaves but no branches?
Answer: A book.
- You are in a room that is completely bricked in on all four sides, including the ceiling and floor. You have nothing but a mirror and a wooden table in the room with you. How do you get out?
Answer: You look in the mirror, you see what you saw, you take the saw and you cut the table in half, two halves make a whole, and you climb out the hole.
- During our life, what are two things we will do but will never remember?
Answer: Breathe our first breath and last breath.
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Now you have enough riddles to last you through hangouts, classes, social media posts, and even your next group chat challenge. Bookmark this page, share it with friends, and have fun!
Got a riddle we should feature? Drop it in the comments or send us a DM on Instagram @Zikokomag
