Riddles for 10 Year Olds: 40 Tricky Riddles with Answers

Ten is the age when riddles get properly fun. They’ve stopped falling for the obvious ones and started enjoying the trick — the double meaning, the clever wording, the moment of “oh, that’s so annoying!” These are the ones that worked best with ten-year-olds at our table.

20 Word Riddles for 10 Year Olds

1. A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he’s bankrupt. Why? — Answer: He’s playing Monopoly
2. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I? — Answer: An echo
3. What has keys but no locks, space but no room, and you can enter but never go inside? — Answer: A keyboard
4. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it? — Answer: Silence
5. I’m as light as a feather, yet the strongest person can’t hold me for five minutes. What am I? — Answer: Your breath
6. What can be seen in the middle of March and April but not at the beginning or end of either month? — Answer: The letter R
7. Mary’s father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini and Nono. What is the fifth daughter called? — Answer: Mary
8. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? — Answer: Short
9. Which is heavier: a kilo of feathers or a kilo of bricks? — Answer: Neither — they both weigh a kilo
10. There are three apples and you take away two. How many apples do you have? — Answer: Two — the two you took
11. What has a ring but no finger? — Answer: A telephone
12. I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I? — Answer: A bank
13. What comes down but never goes up? — Answer: Rain
14. I shave every day, but my beard stays the same. Who am I? — Answer: A barber
15. What invention lets you look right through a wall? — Answer: A window
16. A rooster lays an egg on the very top of a barn roof. Which way does the egg roll? — Answer: Neither — roosters don’t lay eggs
17. What word contains all 26 letters? — Answer: Alphabet
18. What can you keep after giving it to someone? — Answer: Your word
19. What goes all the way around the world but stays in one place? — Answer: The equator
20. You see a boat full of people, yet there isn’t a single person on board. How? — Answer: They’re all married

10 Maths Riddles for 10 Year Olds

Year 5 and Year 6 maths with a twist. Have a pencil handy for the last two.

1. I’m an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I? — Answer: Seven (take away the S)
2. When I was 6, my sister was half my age. Now I’m 10. How old is my sister? — Answer: 7
3. What do you get if you add 2 to 200 four times? — Answer: 202, four times — you add 2 to 200 each time
4. How can you add eight 8s together to make 1,000? — Answer: 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000
5. A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many are left? — Answer: 9
6. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five? — Answer: Nine
7. Which three whole numbers give the same answer whether you add them or multiply them? — Answer: 1, 2 and 3
8. Divide 30 by a half and add 10. What do you get? — Answer: 70 (30 ÷ ½ = 60, plus 10)
9. I’m a three-digit number. My tens digit is five more than my ones digit, and my hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit. What number am I? — Answer: 194
10. How many times can you take 10 away from 100? — Answer: Once — after that you’re taking it away from 90

10 Lateral-Thinking Riddles

1. A girl fell off a 20-foot ladder but didn’t get hurt. How? — Answer: She fell off the bottom step
2. What can you hear but never see or touch? — Answer: Your voice
3. Paul is six feet tall, works at a butcher’s and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh? — Answer: Meat
4. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it and grey when you throw it away? — Answer: Charcoal
5. I’m found in socks, scarves and mittens, and often in the paws of playful kittens. What am I? — Answer: Wool
6. What has a neck but no head, and two arms but no hands? — Answer: A shirt
7. What has a tongue but can’t taste, and a sole but can’t feel? — Answer: A shoe
8. What gets sharper the more you use it? — Answer: Your brain
9. What is always coming but never arrives? — Answer: Tomorrow
10. I have a head like a cat, feet like a cat and a tail like a cat, but I’m not a cat. What am I? — Answer: A kitten

Riddles for 8 Year Olds

Most eight-year-olds enjoy the word riddles above, plus the funny and animal riddles in our 100 riddles for kids. Save the harder maths riddles for nine and up, and read the lateral-thinking ones together.

Want to turn these into a hunt? Our treasure hunt clues for 10 year olds guide shows how to build a whole hunt around codes and riddles, and our secret codes post has ciphers to add.

Detective Treasure HuntRiddles, suspects and codes — crack the case of the stolen crown. Ages 6–12.View the hunt · £12.99 →
Spy Treasure HuntEncrypted messages and logic puzzles for agents aged 9–15.View the hunt · £15.49 →
Magic & Wizards Treasure HuntEight magical stations of riddles, with a harder 9–12 level. Ages 6–12.View the hunt · £12.99 →

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Written and play-tested by Hannah — a Yorkshire mum of two and former primary-school teaching assistant. Last reviewed October 2026.