Thanksgiving Riddles with Answers
Gravy boats, table leaves and turkey math, with the answer one tap away when the table gives up.
- Time
- 10–30 min
- Players
- One or more people
- Best for
- Thanksgiving dinner, the kitchen before the meal and the drive to see family
- Deck
- 60 riddles in 5 categories
How to use these Thanksgiving riddles
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the riddle on the top card aloud and give the table a moment to guess.
- Tap “Show answer”, then “Next riddle”, or swipe the card away, for another. Riddles do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save a riddle on this device, or tap “Make a 10-riddle list” to copy riddles with their answers.
When to play Thanksgiving riddles
A riddle takes less than a minute and gives the whole table one puzzle to work on together. Thanksgiving is full of small waits, and a riddle with its answer one tap away fills each of them without anyone getting stuck.
Around the kitchen counter
Guests drift into the kitchen while the potatoes boil. Read At the table and let them guess roasting pans and carving knives while they wait.
Between dinner and pie
Nobody has room for dessert yet. A few Tricky ones about pie slices and card tables keep the table talking until the coffee is ready.
A fall walk after the meal
Out in the cold with the leaves underfoot, Fall and harvest riddles about geese, hayrides and orchards suit the season.
Ways to play with Thanksgiving riddles
Solve it before you serve it
Whoever is about to carry a dish to the table hears a riddle first. They get one guess, the kitchen gets the next, and then the dish goes out either way. It keeps the cooks laughing through the busiest half hour of the day.
Teams across the table
Split the table down the middle. Each side reads a card to the other, which has thirty seconds to agree on one answer. A right answer earns a point, and a miss lets the reading side try for it. The side with more points carries the pies in.
One riddle per mile
On the drive to dinner, the passenger reads a Tricky one or a Word riddle at every mile marker or town sign. Nobody may say the answer until the driver has had a turn.
Tips for a good Thanksgiving riddle round
- Open with At the table or What am I? so everyone gets a quick win, and bring out Tricky ones once the table is warmed up.
- Read the Word riddles slowly and twice. Most of them hide a short word, like yam or sage, that is easier to unscramble when you hear it again.
- For the Tricky ones, hand out a napkin and a pen. A little arithmetic on paper turns the pie and seating puzzles into a race.
All 60 Thanksgiving riddles with answers by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and play there.
At the table
Gravy boats, carving knives, roasting pans and the other things that turn up for the feast.
- I ride in a boat but never touch the sea, and I’m poured over turkey and potatoes. What am I?Answer: gravy
- What is round, slides out of a can with ridges on its sides, and wobbles on the plate?Answer: jellied cranberry sauce
- I gobbled in the farmyard; now I come out of the oven golden and stuffed. What am I?Answer: a roast turkey
- What has a long blade, works with a big fork, and comes out once the bird has rested?Answer: a carving knife
- What has two handles and high sides, holds the turkey in the oven and catches every drip?Answer: a roasting pan
- What gets poked into the thickest part of the thigh to tell you whether dinner is done?Answer: a meat thermometer
- What sits on your plate before anyone arrives and tells each guest where to sit?Answer: a place card
- What gets unfolded onto your lap as dinner begins and wipes your mouth between bites?Answer: a napkin
Show all 12 in At the tableShow fewer
- What starts out as cream, gets churned until it’s solid, then melts into every warm roll?Answer: butter
- What starts as cream, gets whisked into soft peaks, then lands in a dollop on the pie?Answer: whipped cream
- What sits in the middle of the table holding gourds or candles, and nobody eats it?Answer: the centerpiece
- What has a grid of thin wires and lets a fresh pie cool from underneath?Answer: a cooling rack
Word riddles
Thanksgiving words to unscramble, take apart and change one letter at a time.
- Add one letter to the end of a dessert to get a dock for boats.Answer: pie, which becomes pier
- Unscramble a three-letter Thanksgiving vegetable to get a spring month.Answer: yam, which becomes May
- Take one letter out of a brown sauce and you get a dull color. What’s the sauce?Answer: gravy, which becomes gray
- Unscramble a green side dish to get some big primates.Answer: peas, which becomes apes
- Rearrange the herb in the stuffing to get a word for very long stretches of time.Answer: sage, which becomes ages
- Which fall squash starts with a kind of shoe and ends with a word for family?Answer: pumpkin: pump plus kin
- Change the first letter of a leaf-gathering tool to get a dessert.Answer: rake, which becomes cake
- Rearrange the letters of “bread” to get something that grows on a chin.Answer: beard
Show all 12 in Word riddlesShow fewer
- Rearrange a fall fruit to get what farmers do at harvest time.Answer: pear, which becomes reap
- Rearrange a hot drink to get what everyone does at the feast.Answer: tea, which becomes eat
- Rearrange the letters of “plate” to get part of a flower.Answer: petal
- Put one letter in front of a cooking stove to get a fruit that is also a color.Answer: orange: o plus range
What am I?
Holiday things describe themselves, from a parade balloon to the extra leaf in the table.
- I’m made of dried bread, celery and sage, and I share the oven with the turkey. What am I?Answer: stuffing (or dressing)
- I’m a cartoon giant held down by ropes, and I float along the avenue every November. What am I?Answer: a parade balloon
- I’m shaped like a kernel, striped yellow, orange and white, and sold by the bag every fall. What am I?Answer: candy corn
- I slide into the middle of the table once a year so more chairs fit. What am I?Answer: a table leaf
- I tie around the cook’s waist and take every splash so their clothes don’t have to. What am I?Answer: an apron
- I count down on the counter while the pie bakes, then ring when it’s done. What am I?Answer: a kitchen timer
- Round, orange and ribbed, I sit on the porch all fall and may become a pie. What am I?Answer: a pumpkin
- I’m made before every store run, and the week before the holiday I grow very long. What am I?Answer: a grocery list
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- I’m a chair with a lever, and after the feast everyone wants to lean back in me. What am I?Answer: a recliner
- I’m long and round, I roll back and forth, and I flatten the dough for every pie crust. What am I?Answer: a rolling pin
- I’m thin and shiny, torn from a roll, and I tent the turkey while it rests. What am I?Answer: aluminum foil
- I’m the bread you pull apart: soft, golden and kept warm in a basket under a towel. What am I?Answer: a dinner roll
Fall and harvest
Geese heading south, corn mazes, hayrides, orchards and the clocks falling back.
- What flies south in a V every fall and honks the whole way there?Answer: geese
- What is cut through a field of tall stalks so that people can get lost on purpose?Answer: a corn maze
- What drink is pressed from apples in the fall and often served warm with cinnamon?Answer: apple cider
- What big roll of dried grass waits in the field after harvest to feed the animals all winter?Answer: a hay bale
- In early November, what do the clocks in most of the US do to give everyone an extra hour?Answer: they fall back
- What ride takes you through the fields on a wagon piled with straw?Answer: a hayride
- Which season has two names, and one of them is also what the leaves do?Answer: fall (autumn)
- What grows on a vine, comes in lumpy shapes and colors, and dries hard for fall decorations?Answer: a gourd
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- What big machine cuts and threshes grain in one pass across the field at harvest?Answer: a combine harvester
- What is a farm of fruit trees planted in rows, where you can pick your own apples in fall?Answer: an orchard
- What tall flower has a big yellow face packed with seeds you can roast and eat?Answer: a sunflower
- What do you plant in fall that looks like a small onion and blooms as a tulip in spring?Answer: a tulip bulb
Tricky ones
Quick puzzles about dates, letters, pie slices and seating plans. Read every word.
- Two days after the day before Thanksgiving is which day of the week?Answer: Friday
- At most, how many Thursdays can November have?Answer: five
- In November, how many Thursdays always come before Thanksgiving?Answer: three
- When Thanksgiving lands on November 26, what date is the Sunday after it?Answer: November 29
- Three letters each appear twice in THANKSGIVING. Which three?Answer: G, I and N
- A pie has eight slices. You eat three; a friend eats half the rest. What’s left?Answer: two and a half slices
- Count the letters in “turkey.” Which month’s name has the same number?Answer: August
- Square card tables seat one person per side. Pushed together in one row, how many tables seat ten?Answer: four
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- Five friends each bring two pies. Three pies get eaten, then each friend takes one home. How many are left?Answer: two
- A turkey goes in at 11:30 a.m., roasts 3 hours 45 minutes, then rests 30 minutes. Carving time?Answer: 3:45 p.m.
- Exactly four weeks after Thanksgiving, what day of the week is it?Answer: Thursday
- Three friends live in the same town, a two-hour drive from dinner. If they carpool, how long is the drive?Answer: two hours
Frequently asked questions
How many Thanksgiving riddles are there?
There are 60 riddles, 12 in each of five categories: at the table, word riddles, what am I riddles, fall and harvest, and tricky ones. Every riddle comes with its answer, shown on the card when you tap “Show answer” and printed under it in the list on this page.
Are these riddles hard?
Most are quick. At the table, What am I? and Fall and harvest describe one thing in a few clues, and someone usually gets it within a minute. Word riddles ask you to unscramble or change a letter, and the Tricky ones need a little counting, like slices of pie or Thursdays in November.
What is the difference between these riddles and Thanksgiving jokes?
A riddle has an answer you can work out from the clues, so the table can actually solve it. Thanksgiving jokes end in a pun that nobody is expected to guess, and the fun is in the groan. For riddles about everyday things any time of year, try riddles with answers.
What else can we play on Thanksgiving?
For questions about the 1621 feast, the meal and the parade, play Thanksgiving trivia. For a quieter talk once the guests head home, try Thanksgiving questions for couples.