Riddle
Question requiring cleverness
A riddle is a puzzling question or statement designed to test cleverness, typically requiring creative thinking to solve: What has hands but can't clap? A clock.
Riddles often exploit wordplay, double meanings, or unexpected perspectives.
Figuratively, anything mysterious or hard to understand is a riddle: Her disappearance remains a riddle.
To riddle something is to pierce it with many holes: The car was riddled with bullets.
To be riddled with something is to be full of it: The report was riddled with errors.
Something hard to fathom
- brainteaserPuzzle demanding clever thought
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- mysterySomething unexplained or unknown
brain teaser · logic puzzle · word puzzle · sphinx · Bilbo · Gollum · answer · solution
Humorous statement seeking laughter
- punWordplay using double meanings
- wordplayVerbal wit techniques
- questionRequest for information
- humorAmusing quality
punchline · wit · play on words · double meaning · setup · groan · children · party
Something unexplained or unknown
- secretConcealed information
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
- unknownNot yet discovered
- crypticObscure in meaning
obscure · perplex · baffle · confound · mystify · puzzle over · inexplicable · unfathomable
enigma
Something hard to fathom
- brainteaserPuzzle demanding clever thought
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
mystery · brain teaser · logic puzzle · word puzzle · sphinx · Bilbo · Gollum · answer · solution · clue
joke
Humorous statement seeking laughter
humor · punchline · wit · play on words · double meaning · setup · groan · children · party · icebreaker
mystery
Something unexplained or unknown
cryptic · obscure · perplex · baffle · confound · mystify · puzzle over · inexplicable · unfathomable · inscrutable
sieve
Mesh filtering utensil
perforate · strainer · colander · pockmark · honeycomb · bullets · Swiss cheese · penetrate · dotted · peppered
sift
Separate coarse from fine
separate · filter · strain · gravel · soil · aggregate · mining · panning · coarse · fine
Riddleno-brainer
Self-evident decision
self-evident truth · truism · surface meaning · platitude · axiom
- speaking in riddles
- Tom Riddle
- word riddlesGames of linguistic deduction
- math riddlesProblems requiring numerical reasoning
- riddle wrapped in an enigmaUtterly baffling matter