All Riddles

I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?

The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?

The taller I am, the younger I grow. The shorter I become, the older I am. What am I?

What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?

I eat and live. Give me water and I die. I bring warmth but also destruction. What am I?

I show you the world but everything I show you is reversed. I am still when you are still and move when you move. What am I?

I have hands but I cannot clap. I have a face but no eyes to see. I tell you something every moment of the day yet I never speak a word. What am I?

I have a bed but never sleep, a mouth but never eat. I run all day but never tire. What am I?

I follow you by day but vanish at night. I copy your every move but have no will of my own. What am I?

I am small but I can open great things. I have no power of my own, yet nothing opens without me. I am cut and shaped for one purpose only. What am I?

I have hundreds of leaves but no roots or branches. I have a spine but no bones. Open me and worlds appear. Close me and they vanish. What am I?

I am black and white and read all over. I am filled with stories but I cannot speak. I age quickly but I never move. What am I?

The more you remove from me, the larger I become. What am I?

I hold great weight without hands or arms. I live at the bottom but rule from below. I am heavy when needed and useless otherwise. What am I?

I strike without warning, illuminate everything for a moment, then disappear without a trace. I am feared yet beautiful. What am I?

You feel me but cannot see me. I can be gentle or violent. I have no home yet I travel everywhere. I carry seeds, scatter leaves, and shape mountains over time. What am I?

I always point north but have no opinion. I guide without moving. I am lost without the earth's invisible force. What am I?

I have two faces but only one is shown at a time. I am flipped in moments of indecision. I am small but I built empires. What am I?

I shine brightest in the dark. I have burned for billions of years yet you can cover me with your thumb. I am enormously far away yet I guide sailors home. What am I?

I have six faces but only one is ever shown at a time. I have no voice but I decide your fate in games. What am I?

I am sharp when I am young. I grow blunt with age. I help you devour things yet I can fall out. Replace me and I return — once. What am I?

I get better with age but am ruined by heat. I am treasured when old but ignored when young. I come from grapes or grain. What am I?

I help you rise but I never move myself. I stand straight and yet I lean. Climb me and you reach somewhere new. What am I?

I have five rooms but no doors and no windows. Every room is empty yet something lives inside. What am I?

I have an eye but cannot see. I am sharp at one end and hollow at the other. I help hold things together. What am I?

I have a tongue but cannot taste. I carry messages but never speak. Lick me and I seal myself. What am I?

Thousands cross me every day but I never move. I span great distances yet I never travel. What am I?

I am useless when closed and useful only when open. I protect you from above but I do not cover your feet. What am I?

I go up but I never come down. I am always climbed but I never move. I exist only between two levels. What am I?

I am born in darkness and die when brought to light. I feed the room with my brightness but consume myself in doing so. What am I?

I come in pairs but you never use both at the same time on the same foot. I protect you from the ground but the ground is all I touch. What am I?

I fall but I am never injured. I run but I have no legs. I come from above and end up below. I am needed by all living things. What am I?

I am older than any king yet I bow to no one. I cannot move yet I have shaped the world. The higher you climb me the colder it gets. What am I?

I grow full then thin then disappear then return again. I light the night but I make no light of my own. I pull the ocean but I cannot touch it. What am I?

Everyone sees me every day but nobody can look directly at me. I rise every morning and die every night yet I never truly disappear. What am I?

I am born from water and killed by warmth. I am hard to the touch but soft in defeat. I float on the very thing I came from. What am I?

I am lighter than a feather yet I carry millions of tonnes. I have no shape yet I take every shape. I float even though I am enormously heavy. What am I?

I am the window through which you see the world. I never lie yet I am always deceived. Cover me and your world goes dark. What am I?

I have no bones yet I am one of the strongest muscles. I help you eat and speak. I can wound without drawing blood. What am I?

I beat all your life and never rest. Stop me and everything stops. I am the size of your fist but I power everything. What am I?

There are two of us and we never touch each other. We work together all day and night. We take in the invisible and give back the invisible. What are we?

I am harder than wood yet I am alive. I hold you up but you cannot see me. Break me and I heal — but slowly. What am I?

I travel the entire body every minute of the day. I carry life to every corner. I am red but I started darker. What am I?

You use me every moment of your life yet you rarely think of me. I am invisible but essential. Take me away and nothing survives. What am I?

A house with no doors, no windows, and a golden treasure inside. What am I?

The more layers you remove, the more you weep. I am essential in cooking and hated when raw. What am I?

Red on the outside, white on the inside, with seeds at the centre. A teacher's favourite, a doctor's enemy. What am I?

I rise without legs. I need heat to become what I am. I start soft, become hard, then return to soft. What am I?

I have preserved armies, started wars, and seasoned every meal in history. I am invisible when dissolved but always felt. What am I?

I am the daughter of water yet when water touches me I die. What am I?

I am always with you in the night. I flee from the smallest light. I am not evil — I am simply the absence of something. What am I?

I have no shape of my own yet I fill any room. I cannot be held yet I choke those who breathe me. I am born from fire but I am not fire. What am I?

I am born from everything yet I am nothing on my own. I settle on every surface you forget. I am the fate of all things eventually. What am I?

I have eight legs and I build with what comes from inside me. My home catches my meals. I am feared by many but harm few. What am I?

Dressed in gold and black, I give the world sweetness. I live and die for my queen. Cross me and I wound myself in the process. What am I?

I am born in one form and die in a completely different one. I begin on the ground and end in the air. I am reborn without dying. What am I?

I have no legs yet I can move faster than a walk. I shed my skin and am reborn. I am ancient and feared across every culture. What am I?

I live in water and die in air. I breathe without lungs. I am silent yet my world is full of sound. What am I?

Two wings, two legs, but I live between sky and earth. I build my home in branches. I sing though I have no instrument. What am I?

I divide without cutting and connect without touching. I am always in between but I belong to neither side. What am I?

Millions walk on me, drive on me, and run on me. I go everywhere but I never move. The more you use me the more worn I become. What am I?

You can see through me but you cannot walk through me without breaking me. I keep the cold out but let the light in. What am I?

I stand all day. I am opened and closed thousands of times yet I never complain. I am your first welcome and last farewell. What am I?

The more you walk towards me, the further I move away. You can always see me but you can never reach me. What am I?

I am dug for the living yet filled by the dead. I cost everything but give nothing back. What am I?

I can be kept or broken. I can be made or lost. I am not a physical thing, yet I carry enormous weight. What am I?

I come when you close your eyes and vanish when you open them. I can terrify or delight you. I feel real yet I never am. What am I?

I can be crystal clear or impossibly blurry. I comfort you or haunt you. I am not real, yet I shape who you are. What am I?

Everyone has it. Nobody can give it away. Nobody can stop it. The more of it you use, the less you have. What is it?

Everyone has me and uses me every day. You were given me at birth. Others call you by me, but you never call yourself by me. What am I?

The more of these you have, the older you are. Yet many people wish for more of them. They come once a year and are celebrated with candles. What are they?

Everyone does it but few remember it. You spend a third of your life doing it. It restores you, heals you, and is ruined by babies. What is it?

Children dread me, teachers love me, parents nag about me. I follow you home but I am not a pet. What am I?

I rule without power, measure without thinking, and am used in school but rarely at weekends. What am I?

I make my mark but can always be undone. I am sharp at first and blunt with use. I am older than the pen. What am I?

Two of us together and I am powerful. Separate us and I am useless. I am sharp but I am for creation not destruction. What am I?

I have no legs yet I run across fields. I am round yet I never travel in a straight line when kicked. I bring people together in their millions. What am I?

Two wheels but no engine. I go where no car can follow. I am powered by the very person I carry. What am I?

I help you see more clearly yet many people forget I am even there. I sit on your face but you look through me not at me. Without me the world is a blur. What am I?

I am a crown for those without a kingdom. I shelter you from sun and rain. Take me off to show respect. What am I?

I fly but I am always tied down. I need the wind and a willing hand. Let go of me and I am lost. What am I?

I am full of nothing yet I bring joy to children everywhere. Pop me and I am gone in an instant. I rise when released. What am I?

I freeze a moment forever but I am never alive. I show you people who may be long gone. I fade over decades but I never forget. What am I?

I have twelve rooms and three hundred and sixty five floors. Each floor is used only once and then discarded. What am I?

I measure how hot and cold the world is but I never feel it myself. I rise when others suffer and fall when they are relieved. What am I?

I measure time with sand. When I run out, flip me over and I begin again. I am ancient yet as accurate as I ever was. What am I?

I have ribs but no bones. I move through water using human arms. I carry one or two but never more. What am I?

I stand in the sea but never swim. I shine all night but give no warmth. I warn those far away from something near. What am I?

I attract some things and repel others. I am strongest at my ends. I have an invisible force yet I am made of metal. What am I?

I weigh everything without opinion. I am the symbol of justice and the tool of the trader. I have two sides but I always seek balance. What am I?

I make the far seem near and the invisible seem real. I brought humans to the stars without leaving the ground. What am I?

I make the invisible visible. I revealed a world hiding beneath your feet, in your water, and on your skin. What am I?

I store power but I am powerless on my own. I make devices come alive. Leave me unused for too long and I slowly die. What am I?

I tick all day and night yet I have no heartbeat. I am precise but I am always slightly wrong. Every hundred years I need to be corrected. What am I?

I clean by getting dirty myself. I disappear as I do my job. I make the invisible visible in bubbles. What am I?

I show you a version of yourself from a tiny fraction of a second in the past. The image you see is never truly you right now. What am I?

I come once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years. What am I?

I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?

I have teeth but I cannot bite. I help things come together. Pull me apart and things fall apart too. What am I?

I travel the world and never move. I have a face but no body. I am small but I carry great stories. What am I?

Everyone wants to tell me but wishes they hadn't. The more people know me, the less I am. What am I?

Everyone hopes to avoid me yet everyone catches me eventually. I spread easily in winter and hide in summer. What am I?

I hold your money but I am not a wallet. I have branches but I am not a tree. I have interest but I am not a hobby. What am I?

Kings play here and criminals stand here. It seeks fairness in one place and tests your serve in another. What am I?

I am the opposite of heavy and also the opposite of dark. I fill a room instantly. I travel faster than anything in the universe. What am I?

I hang on a tree, appear on a calendar, and describe a romantic evening. What am I?

Football is played on me. Music has me. I am also the darkest substance used on rooftops. What am I?

I am a season, a source of water, a coil of metal, and a verb meaning to leap. What am I?

You wear me on your wrist, you also do me at a film, and a sailor does me through the night. What am I?

A tree has them, a book has them, and a person does it. What are they?

A writer uses me, a farmer uses me, and a prisoner lives in me. What am I?

A dog does it, a tree has it, and a ship does it in a harbour. What is it?

Without me you cannot see clearly. Without me you cannot drink elegantly. One of me sits on your nose, the other on your table. What am I?

I go on your finger, I summon you to answer, I surround a boxing match, and a circus performs in me. What am I?

I measure weight, I am British money, I am what you do to a nail, and I am where lost dogs go. What am I?

I have cities but no houses live there. I have mountains but no trees grow. I have water but no fish swim. I have roads but no cars drive. What am I?

When does tomorrow come before yesterday?

What is at the end of a rainbow?

I make your left hand your right hand and your right hand your left. I show you yourself but not as others see you. What am I?

What has no beginning, no middle, and no end?

The more it dries, the wetter it becomes. What is it?

I am white when dirty and black when clean. What am I?

A teacher asks a student to spell wrong. The student spells W-R-O-N-G. Was the student right or wrong?

How many months have 28 days?

The faster you run, the harder I am to catch. Yet I am always the same distance ahead of you. What am I?

What is half of 8? There are two correct answers.

You must throw me away to use me. You only use me once. I am essential on birthdays. What am I?

What does a ceiling have that a floor does not?

If a ship captain has 15 fish and the sea is full of sharks, how many fish does he have?

A bear walks one mile south, one mile east, then one mile north and ends up exactly where it started. What colour is the bear?

I am always coming but never arrive. I am always passing but never gone. Everyone wants more of me but no one can hold me. What am I?

I travel on air but have no wings. I can make you cry or dance. I have no language yet I am understood everywhere. What am I?

I am the price you pay for love. The greater the love, the heavier I am. I am not an illness yet I can break the strongest person. What am I?

I feed no one yet I have sustained millions through famine. I cure nothing yet the sick hold onto me. I cost nothing yet I am priceless. What am I?

I am not the absence of fear but the decision to act despite it. Animals have instinct, but only people truly have me. What am I?

Some refuse to see me even when I am directly in front of them. I hurt at first but heal in the long run. I am the same for everyone, even when people disagree. What am I?

I am born in an instant and can live forever. I never breathe yet I spread faster than disease. One of me can destroy a lifetime's reputation. What am I?

I am contagious but I am not an illness. I am free yet I am said to be the best medicine. I escape at the worst possible moments. What am I?

I am the loudest thing in an empty room. I am what you hear when all sound is gone. I am uncomfortable for many yet peaceful for few. What am I?

I have no weight yet I can crush you. I have no arms yet I can embrace you. I live in your mind but affect your whole body. What am I?

I exist all around you but I have no colour of my own. Without me you would see no colour at all. I am destroyed by darkness yet I create it. What am I?

Ask me anything and I will answer — but I have no mind. I know everything ever written, yet I understand nothing. What am I?

I am a camera, a phone, a computer, a map, a clock, and a library — all in your pocket. Thirty years ago I did not exist. Today people panic without me. What am I?

I am invisible yet I surround you in your home. I carry voices, films, and music yet I make no sound. Switch me off and the whole house complains. What am I?

Everyone checks on me with anxiety when I run low. I power your world silently. When I die, everything around me dies too. What am I?

I store things in a place that has no address you can visit. I exist everywhere and nowhere. Lose your device but never lose me. What am I?

I decide what you see without asking. I know your preferences better than you do. I am invisible yet I shape your opinions. What am I?

I am a letter without paper, delivered without a postman, and arrive in an instant. I am read but I am never touched. What am I?

I am a portrait, but the subject is also the photographer. I am taken with an outstretched arm. I am shared more than any other type of photograph. What am I?

I am born on a screen and spread like a virus. I can make millions laugh or destroy a reputation. I am impossible to stop once I am loose. What am I?

I am a radio show with no radio and no fixed schedule. I talk to millions but I am never live. I wait for you whenever you are ready. What am I?

Built by thousands for one person who never lifted a stone. I have stood for thousands of years yet I was a tomb. I point to the sky but I shelter the dead. What am I?

I guided explorers across unknown oceans without a single star to follow. I am ancient yet still used today. I have no engine but I have pointed the way to every continent. What am I?

I am one of the greatest inventions in history yet nobody knows exactly who invented me. I am round but I am not a ball. I move things but I do not move myself. What am I?

Before me, knowledge belonged to the few. After me, it belonged to everyone. I spread revolution, religion, and romance across the world. I use ink but I am not a pen. What am I?

I am the longest structure ever built by human hands. I was meant to keep people out but I became a reason to come in. I stretch across mountains and deserts. What am I?

I held fifty thousand people yet I am a ruin. I was built for entertainment but death was my business. I inspired every sports stadium that came after me. What am I?

I was the first major book printed with movable type in the Western world. I contain the same words as thousands of handwritten copies before me, but I changed the world. What am I?

I am a document that forced a king to obey the law. I am over 800 years old but my principles live in every modern democracy. What am I?

I am not a road in the modern sense. I am a network of paths that connected East and West for centuries. I carried silk, spices, ideas, and disease. What am I?

I was a gift that destroyed a city. I appeared to be something I was not. I am remembered not for what I was but for what I hid. What am I?

I am a mountain that breathes fire. I have destroyed cities and created islands. I am terrifying yet I make the most fertile land on earth. What am I?

I have no warning and no mercy. I move the ground beneath your feet. I am caused by forces so deep you cannot see them. What am I?

I am a sea with no water and waves that never move. I cover a third of the earth's land surface. I am the hottest place by day and the coldest by night. What am I?

I cover more than seventy percent of the earth yet most of me has never been seen by human eyes. I am more unexplored than the surface of the moon. What am I?

I am a river that moves in slow motion. I carve mountains as I creep. I hold most of the world's fresh water yet I am solid. What am I?

I appear after rain and disappear as you approach. I am made of light and water. I have seven colours but I have no end. What am I?

I am a cathedral built without hands. I am dark but I am full of sculpture. The deeper you go into me the more ancient the world becomes. What am I?

I am the sea breathing in and out twice a day. I am controlled by something a quarter of a million miles away. Sailors fear me and fishermen live by me. What am I?

I am where the river surrenders to the sea. I am neither fresh nor salt. I am home to more life than almost anywhere on earth. What am I?

I am the sky dancing with colour near the poles. I am caused by particles from the sun colliding with the atmosphere. I have inspired myths in every Arctic culture. What am I?

I am a season, not a storm. I feed a billion people with water yet I can also destroy. Half a continent holds its breath waiting for me. What am I?

I am a river that suddenly runs out of floor. I am loud yet the water that makes me has no idea I am coming. I wear away rock that has stood for millions of years. What am I?

I hold planets in orbit and keep you on the ground. I am invisible but I am the most powerful force over long distances. I cannot be switched off. What am I?

I am the smallest building block of all ordinary matter. I am mostly empty space yet I feel solid. Split me and you release enormous energy. What am I?

I am the most extreme object in the universe. Nothing that enters me ever returns. Not even light escapes my grasp. I am invisible yet I bend space around me. What am I?

I am the blueprint for every living thing on earth. I am twisted like a ladder. I am found inside almost every cell of your body. I contain the instructions that make you, you. What am I?

I am an invisible river that flows through metal. I power everything in your home yet you cannot see me. Touch me incorrectly and I can kill. What am I?

I have two poles that can never be the same. Pull two of me apart and I become two complete versions of myself. I can attract or repel without touching. What am I?

I am a vibration that becomes meaning. I travel through air, water, and stone but not through space. I can shatter glass and soothe a child. What am I?

I am invisible yet without me nothing burns and nothing lives. I make up a fifth of the air around you. Too much of me is toxic, too little and you die. What am I?

I am the basis of all life on Earth. I can be as soft as pencil lead or as hard as the hardest substance known. I am in every living thing and every dead thing. What am I?

I split white light into seven colours. I reveal what was always there but hidden. I am a triangle that shows the secret of sunlight. What am I?

I teach your body to fight an enemy it has never met. I am made from the thing that could harm you. I have saved more lives than any other medical intervention in history. What am I?

I am sound that has gone on a journey and returned. Bats use me to hunt. Ships use me to find the bottom of the ocean. I am the voice of the mountain answering back. What am I?

I was once alive but now I am stone. I am millions of years old yet I tell us about creatures that lived long before humans. What am I?

I catch light that left its source before the Earth existed. I look outward but I also look backward through time. The bigger I am, the further back I can see. What am I?

I am your home galaxy yet you will never see all of me. I contain over two hundred billion stars. You can see a slice of me on a clear dark night as a band of light. What am I?

I am a dirty snowball with a tail of fire. I visit the inner solar system occasionally and depart for thousands of years. Ancient people thought I was an omen. What am I?

You call me a shooting star but I am no star. I am a rock burning up in the atmosphere. I make wishes come true — or so people say. What am I?

I orbit a star, I have cleared my neighbourhood, and I am nearly round. I am something specific — not a moon, not a star, not an asteroid. What am I?

I am a planet wearing a crown of ice and rock. I am the lightest planet relative to my size — I would float in water if there were an ocean large enough. What am I?

I sound like a measurement of time but I measure distance. I am the distance light travels in a full year. The nearest star to our sun is four of me away. What am I?

I happen when one world stands between another and its light. For a few minutes day becomes night. Animals are confused and humans fall silent. What am I?

I am the death of a star so violent that I briefly outshine an entire galaxy. I scatter the atoms that make up planets and people across the cosmos. What am I?

I am a cloud in space where stars are born. I am made of gas and dust. I glow with colour that takes a telescope to reveal. What am I?

I have six strings but I am not a puppet. I have a body but no organs. Press me in the right places and I sing. What am I?

I have eighty-eight keys but no locks. I am heavy but I make light things. My voice can be gentle as a whisper or thunderous as a storm. What am I?

I have only four strings yet I sang at every royal court in Europe. I am made of wood but I breathe like a living thing. I can make grown men weep. What am I?

I am possibly the oldest instrument in history. I am hit but I am not a punch bag. I keep everything together. Without me, music loses its heartbeat. What am I?

I make music without touching a single instrument. My hands tell dozens of people what to do. I face away from the audience. What am I?

I am the most important element in music yet I make no sound. Without me, music would be just noise. Composers place me as carefully as any note. What am I?

I tick like a clock but I do not tell the time. Musicians use me to stay together. I can be fast or slow but I am always perfectly consistent. What am I?

I am a collection of songs that is more than the sum of its parts. Before me, music was sold one song at a time. I can tell a story that no single song can. What am I?

I am the instrument between an artist's hand and the canvas. I can be as fine as a hair or as wide as a hand. I hold colour but I have none of my own. What am I?

I am a blank space waiting to become a world. I am stretched and primed and patient. A great painting begins with me but I am forgotten when the work is done. What am I?

I am a world that exists only in words. I can take years to write and hours to read. I can change how a person sees the world — without showing them a single image. What am I?

I use the fewest words to say the most. I am measured in feet but I do not walk. I can last a thousand years without a single image. What am I?

I am a person frozen in stone or metal forever. I was once invisible inside a block of rock. I outlive the sculptor who found me. What am I?

I am a story told with hands and light. I am one of the oldest forms of entertainment in the world. My actors are flat but my stories are deep. What am I?

I am a city of books where nobody lives but countless people visit. I am free to enter but you must return what you take. I hold more voices than any room in the world. What am I?

I begin as a bitter bean in a tropical pod. I am ground, fermented, and transformed. I have been used as currency, medicine, and the world's favourite treat. What am I?

I am milk that time and bacteria have transformed. I can be fresh and mild or ancient and powerful. Some of me are worth more than gold by weight. What am I?

I am made by a million wings from a million flowers. I never spoil. I have been found in ancient tombs, still edible after thousands of years. What am I?

I am a grape that has been crushed, fermented, and given time. I improve over years in darkness. I am poured at celebrations and at funerals alike. What am I?

I am a bitter drink that powers the modern world. I was discovered by goats. I fuelled the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Without me, half the world would not wake up properly. What am I?

I was once worth more than gold by weight. Wars were fought over me and continents were discovered in search of me. Today I sit quietly in your kitchen cupboard. What am I?

I have been called the staff of life. I have been eaten for ten thousand years. I start as a field of grain and end on every table in the world. What am I?

I am a dried leaf that changed the course of history. I started a revolution in America and built an empire in Britain. I am drunk more than any other beverage on earth except water. What am I?

I have puzzled philosophers for centuries. I feed the world every morning. I am the beginning of nearly every creature that flies. What am I?

I am neither plant nor animal. I am the fruiting body of an organism that lives mostly underground. I can save lives as medicine or take them as poison. What am I?

I weigh about three pounds yet I contain your entire universe. I can imagine things that do not exist. I am the only organ that named itself. What am I?

I am your largest organ and you wear me every day. I am waterproof, self-healing, and sensitive. I am the only organ visible to other people. What am I?

I am a bag of acid that dissolves what you eat. I expand to hold a full meal and shrink when empty. I growl when I want attention. What am I?

I am your body's chemist, detoxifying everything that enters your blood. I have over 500 functions. I can regenerate even if most of me is removed. What am I?

I carry messages faster than thought from every corner of your body to your brain. I am thinner than a hair yet I can be over a metre long. What am I?

I am the largest joint in the human body. I am a hinge that carries your entire weight every time you stand. I am vulnerable yet essential. What am I?

I grow every day of your life and never stop. I protect the most sensitive part of your finger. Cut me and I feel nothing. Tear me and I feel everything. What am I?

I am an invisible army that fights for you every moment of every day. I remember every enemy I have ever defeated. I can be defeated by things too small to see. What am I?

I am the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth — larger than any dinosaur. I breathe air but I live in the sea. I sing songs that travel hundreds of miles. What am I?

I have eight arms, three hearts, and blue blood. I can change colour in an instant. I am considered the most intelligent invertebrate on Earth. What am I?

I wear every colour but my own. I move each eye independently. My tongue is longer than my body. What am I?

I never forget a face. I grieve my dead. I communicate through vibrations in the ground. I am the largest land animal on Earth. What am I?

I am a bird that chose the sea over the sky. I wear a tuxedo every day. I live where it is coldest yet I huddle together for warmth. What am I?

I am born in a river, grow up in the ocean, and return to the exact same river where I was born to lay my eggs and die. What am I?

I fly by sound rather than sight. I sleep upside down. I am the only mammal that truly flies. I pollinate many of the plants that feed you. What am I?

I am tiny but I can carry fifty times my own body weight. I have lived on Earth for over 100 million years. There are more of me on Earth than of any other insect. What am I?

I am an animal that builds cities. I look like a plant and move like a rock. My city is home to a quarter of all ocean species. What am I?

I am the finest natural fabric in the world, produced by an insect. I was so valuable it inspired trade routes across continents. A single thread of me can be up to a mile long. What am I?

I travel the world before every great competition. I have never gone out — even across the ocean. I have burned since ancient Greece. What am I?

I am twelve yards of pure tension. I is one player against one. Nations have wept because of me. What am I?

I am a race named after a battle. I am 26 miles and 385 yards long — an oddly specific distance. I destroy the body and elevate the spirit. What am I?

I am the most debated rule in sport. I require a millimetre's precision. Millions argue about me every weekend. What am I?

I am the lightest thing that can weigh the most on an athlete's chest. I am given only once every four years for each event. I am mostly silver but I am called gold. What am I?

I require three of the same thing from one person. I originated in cricket, moved to football, and is celebrated everywhere. What am I?

I mean the king is captured. I end all arguments. I is two words in Persian that mean 'the king is dead'. What am I?

I am the person everyone argues with but everyone needs. I make decisions in seconds that millions debate for years. I am unpaid at grassroots level and abused at professional level. What am I?

I die in flames and am reborn from my own ashes. I am a symbol of resurrection in cultures across the world. I am not real but my story never dies. What am I?

I am a monster at the centre of a maze. I am half human and half beast. A hero killed me with a sword and a ball of thread. What am I?

I am the one weakness in an otherwise invincible hero. I am the target an enemy will always seek. My story is 3,000 years old but my name is still used today. What am I?

I was a gift that contained all the world's evils. I was opened out of curiosity and could never be closed again. Only one thing remained inside me when it was over. What am I?

I was a sword in a stone that only a true king could pull free. I gave my owner his right to rule. I am the most famous sword in legend. What am I?

I am a sea monster so large I was mistaken for an island. I could drag entire ships beneath the waves. I was legend until giant squid proved something like me is real. What am I?

I was a king cursed to get exactly what I wished for. Everything I touched became my desire and my undoing. What am I?

Before me, a message took days to cross a country. After me, a voice could travel in an instant. I was invented in 1876 and within a century I was in every home. What am I?

I was designed to survive a nuclear attack. I became a playground, a library, a marketplace, and a battlefield. No one owns me but everyone uses me. What am I?

I freeze time in a box. I was invented to capture reality but I am used to create fantasy. I cannot lie but it is easy to lie with me. What am I?

I rule modern life. Before me, everyone kept their own time. I standardised the world. I was invented because trains needed me. What am I?

I may have changed the course of intellectual history. Before me, scholars went blind in middle age and stopped working. I let them keep reading. What am I?

I was invented in China for celebration. The West used me for conquest. I changed the nature of war forever. I am explosive yet I was used to make the sky beautiful. What am I?

For thousands of years humans watched birds and dreamed of this. Two brothers with a bicycle shop changed history in 12 seconds. What am I?

I turned coal and water into motion. I pulled the world out of the fields and into the factories. I powered the ships that built empires. What am I?

I am twenty-six shapes that contain all of human thought. I was not always twenty-six. Different cultures have different versions of me. What am I?

I am a tiny symbol that demands an answer. I appear at the end of every riddle. I represent the most human of all instincts. What am I?

I say one thing and mean another — but not to deceive. I am the engine of poetry and the heart of all storytelling. I am how the mind makes sense of the unfamiliar. What am I?

I am the one thing no language can translate. I am what exists between words. In some cultures I am companionable; in others I am awkward. What am I?

I say the opposite of what I mean. I require tone of voice to work. I cannot survive translation. Children under four years old cannot understand me. What am I?

I am a phrase that means something completely different from my individual words. I make no literal sense but every native speaker understands me. I am the hardest part of a language to learn. What am I?

Shakespeare called me the green-eyed monster. I poison what I touch. I am a sign that you care — but also that you do not trust. What am I?

I am a longing for a time that may never have been quite as good as I remember. I make the past warmer than it was. I am a kind of beautiful sadness. What am I?

I am the ability to feel what another person feels. I require imagination as well as feeling. I am what separates compassion from pity. What am I?

I am the emotion that lives permanently in the past. I change nothing yet I am one of the strongest motivators. The things that cause me most are usually the things we did not do. What am I?

I am the feeling that drives both science and art. I am what a child feels at their first snowfall. I require that you do not already know the answer. What am I?

I am the deadliest of the seven deadly sins yet I feel like a virtue. A little of me is healthy; too much of me destroys. I come before a fall. What am I?

I am the number that changed mathematics. I am nothing, yet without me, nothing works. I was invented twice — once in India and once in Mesoamerica. What am I?

I am bigger than any number you can name, yet some of me are bigger than others. I am not a number yet mathematicians work with me every day. What am I?

I am hiding in every circle ever drawn. I begin 3.14159 and never end and never repeat. I am irrational yet I am everywhere in nature. What am I?

I am a number with exactly two factors. I am divisible only by one and myself. There are infinitely many of me, but I become rarer as numbers grow larger. What am I?

I am a sequence where each number is the sum of the two before it. I appear in flower petals, shell spirals, and pine cones. I start 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8... What am I?

I break something every morning. I am the first meal of the day. The thing I break is not a physical object. What am I?

I am a party where the guest of honour cannot attend. I is a gathering held for someone who no longer gathers. I is sombre yet I often ends with stories and laughter. What am I?

I start without warning and end without explanation. Every cure for me is disputed. I have no known useful purpose. I am your body surprising itself. What am I?

I am Britain's national sport that is not a sport. I require patience, not skill. I have invisible rules that everyone knows. Jump to the front of me at your peril. What am I?

I can start a war or end one. I can heal a wound that no medicine can touch. I cannot be unsaid. Billions of me are spoken every minute. What am I?

I spread faster than the truth and last longer than lies. I am entertaining yet dangerous. I am as old as language itself. What am I?

I am not an action, I am what an action becomes. I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I take weeks to make and a lifetime to break. What am I?

Children turn me and jump through me for hours. I am not a game that can be won. I am a rope that goes nowhere but takes you somewhere. What am I?

I am the smallest bank in the world. I have no interest rates. I must be broken to be emptied. I am shaped like a pig for reasons nobody agrees on. What am I?

I come in small plastic bricks that can become anything. I am painful to stand on barefoot. I am one of the most popular toys ever made. What am I?

I am the world's most popular condiment. I was once sold as medicine. I begin as a fruit but most people think I am a vegetable. What am I?

I am eaten once a year with fire on top. You make a wish before extinguishing me. I taste the same but I mean more every year. What am I?

I am over in a second yet remembered forever. I cannot be planned and enjoyed simultaneously. I am the gift that needs no wrapping. What am I?

I am a window to the past disguised as a tool for the future. Everything I show you has already happened. The further I look, the further back in time I see. What am I?

I answer every question you ask yet I know nothing. I repeat your words but I am not a parrot. I am the mountain's reply. What am I?

I am the most contagious thing that is not a disease. Thinking about me makes you do me. Even reading this sentence might cause one. What am I?

I am two days that feel shorter than five. I am what makes the week worth enduring. I was invented by industrialists and won by workers. What am I?

About one in ten people are me. The world was not designed for me. For centuries I was considered unlucky or even evil. But some of history's greatest minds were me. What am I?

On me, going up forever never gets you higher. Going down forever never gets you lower. I exist in art but not in physics. What am I?

An apple fell and changed the course of physics. I pull everything toward everything else. I am the weakest of the fundamental forces yet I hold galaxies together. What am I?

I have shown you your face every day of your life. Yet you have never seen your face as others see it. What am I?

I am medicine that is completely free. I is contagious in the best way. I can defuse a crisis in an instant. I is uniquely human in its complexity. What am I?

I make the world flat. I am always wrong but always useful. The bigger I am the more accurate I am but the less portable. What am I?

The oldest of me alive today were saplings before Christ was born. I clean your air, cool your city, and hold the soil together. I am the tallest living thing on Earth. What am I?

I contain an entire tree yet I fit in a pocket. I need darkness to begin my journey and light to complete it. I am the ultimate example of potential. What am I?

I am patient enough to carve a canyon over millions of years. I always find the lowest path. I start small and grow by gathering others. What am I?

I am the part of the tree you never see. I can be larger than the tree above ground. I speak to other trees through underground networks. What am I?

I am one of nature's most sophisticated structures. I am almost weightless yet I can support flight. Each of me contains thousands of interlocking hooks. What am I?

I am a piece of ocean left behind by the tide. I am a whole ecosystem in a rocky puddle. I am destroyed by one careless foot. What am I?

I am the secret that protects secrets. I am only useful if nobody knows me but the right person. Forget me and you are locked out of your own life. What am I?

I approach like a wave that grows larger the closer it gets. Before me, people do nothing. As I arrive, people do everything. I am the greatest motivator known to humanity. What am I?

I am proof of the most ordinary moments of your life. I am printed in seconds and thrown away in seconds. I record the small transactions that add up to who you are. What am I?

I fill every room in your home yet you cannot see or feel me. Remove me and watch the chaos begin. I am taken for granted until I disappear. What am I?

You look at me every single day and forget what you see almost immediately. I am the first face you see in the morning. What am I?

I am an invisible social contract. Break me and face social disapproval. I require no enforcement yet it is remarkably effective. I is a very British institution. What am I?

I am a story your body tells without words. I am proof that something happened and that you survived it. I fade over time but never quite disappear. What am I?

I copy everything you do but understand nothing. I have no weight, no voice, no feelings. I am your constant companion who has never spoken a word to you. What am I?

I am your identity written on every surface you touch. No two of me are alike in the entire world. I have been used to catch criminals and identify the dead. What am I?

I am the voice of an empty place. I give a cave its character and a mountain its personality. I am yourself, coming back to you. What am I?

I am what keeps the Moon from flying away. I am what keeps you from floating off into space. I am the weakest force in the universe over short distances but I rule over long ones. What am I?

I am made in seven seconds and can last a lifetime. I cannot be unmade. You make me about everyone you meet and everyone makes one of you. What am I?

I am the smallest mark in writing but I carry the most weight. I end everything. I am the one punctuation mark that always means stop. What am I?