Time Riddles With Answers
Updated · Best Riddles With Answers editorial team
Quick answer: This page offers 42 time riddles with answers for children learning to tell the time, teachers and puzzle fans. The easy riddles describe clocks, calendars and the parts of a day, the middle sets play with words and ideas about time, and the hard set has clock maths, date puzzles and a few classic brain teasers with the working shown.
Easy Time Riddles
I have a face and two hands, but no arms or legs, and I tick all day. What am I?
A clock
I strap around your wrist, and I tell you the time wherever you go. What am I?
A watch
I hang on the wall with twelve pages, and I show you the day and the month. What am I?
A calendar
I ring or beep in the morning and wake you up for school. What am I?
An alarm clock
Sand falls through my narrow neck, and when the top is empty, the time is up. What am I?
An hourglass
I tell the time with a shadow from the sun, and I need no batteries. What am I?
A sundial
I am the short hand on a clock face, and I move very slowly. What am I?
The hour hand
I am the middle of the night, when the clock strikes twelve, and one day ends and another begins. What am I?
Midnight
I last 24 hours, and the Earth turns once while I pass. What am I?
A day
I am seven days long, and I start on Monday or Sunday. What am I?
A week
I may have 28, 30 or 31 days, and there are twelve of me in a year. What am I?
A month
I have twelve months and about 365 days, and the Earth takes me to go once round the Sun. What am I?
A year
Trickier Time Riddles
I am always coming but I never arrive today. What am I?
Tomorrow
I am the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end and the end of every place. What am I?
The letter E
I have an extra day, added once every four years. What am I?
A leap year
I am the middle of the day, when the sun is at its highest and both hands point up. What am I?
Noon
There are sixty of me in a minute. What am I?
A second
I am ten years long. What am I?
A decade
I am a hundred years long. What am I?
A century
I am the first light of the morning, when the sky turns pink and the birds start to sing. What am I?
Dawn
You can learn from me but you cannot change me. What am I?
The past
Which months have 28 days?
All of them, because every month has at least 28 days
I fly when you are having fun and drag when you are bored, yet no one can hold me. What am I?
Time
I have no hands and no face to speak of, yet I show the time in glowing numbers. What am I?
A digital clock
Hard Time Riddles
At half past three, what is the angle between the hour hand and the minute hand?
75 degrees. The minute hand points to 180 degrees, the hour hand is at 3.5 x 30 = 105 degrees, and 180 - 105 = 75
How many times in a full day do the hour hand and the minute hand of a clock lie exactly on top of each other?
22 times, which is 11 times in every 12 hours
A clock takes 5 seconds to strike six. How long does it take to strike twelve?
11 seconds. Six strikes have 5 gaps of 1 second, and twelve strikes have 11 gaps
The day before yesterday was Thursday. What day will tomorrow be?
Sunday, because today is Saturday
A train leaves at 9:40 and the journey takes 2 hours 35 minutes. When does it arrive?
12:15, because 9:40 + 2:00 = 11:40 and 11:40 + 35 minutes = 12:15
How many seconds are there in one day?
86,400, because 24 x 60 x 60 = 86,400
Today is Wednesday. What day of the week will it be 100 days from now?
Friday, because 100 = 14 weeks and 2 days, and Wednesday plus 2 days is Friday
The sun rises at 6:10 in the morning and sets at 6:50 in the evening. How long is the day?
12 hours 40 minutes, because 6:10 to 6:10 is 12 hours, plus 40 minutes
A watch gains 2 minutes every hour. It is set exactly right at noon. What time does it show when the real time is 6 in the evening?
6:12, because 6 hours x 2 minutes = 12 minutes gained
A 12 centimetre candle burns 2 centimetres every hour and is lit at 6 in the evening. At what time is it half its height?
9 in the evening, because it must burn 6 centimetres, which takes 3 hours
Quick-Fire Time Riddles
Sixty minutes make me. What am I?
An hour
Sixty seconds make me. What am I?
A minute
The day before today. What am I?
Yesterday
The day you are in right now. What am I?
Today
Saturday and Sunday together. What am I?
The weekend
A kitchen gadget that rings when the cake is done. What am I?
A timer
The last moment to hand in your work. What am I?
A deadline
Spring, summer, autumn or winter. What am I?
A season
How to Use These Time Riddles
Time riddles help children who are learning to read a clock. Use a toy clock and let them move the hands as they solve each riddle. The easy set links objects to units of time, and the quick-fire set helps with the order of days and the weekend.
Older pupils can use the hard riddles to practise calculating with hours and days. Ask them to draw the clock or the calendar and to explain their working before checking against the answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good time riddle for kids?
Try 'I have a face and two hands, but no arms or legs, and I tick all day.' The answer is a clock. Riddles about clocks, calendars and the days of the week are easy for young children.
Why do we have a leap year?
The Earth takes about 365 and a quarter days to orbit the Sun. A leap year adds an extra day every four years, February 29th, so the calendar stays in step with the seasons.
How many times do clock hands overlap in a day?
The hour and minute hands overlap 22 times in 24 hours, which is 11 times in every 12 hours. They do not overlap on the hour except at 12 o'clock, because the hour hand keeps moving.
Can time riddles help children learn to read a clock?
Yes. Riddles make children link clock faces, hours, minutes and days to real objects, and the maths puzzles give them practice adding and subtracting time. Use a toy clock to make each step visible.
