Apple Riddles: 30 Crunchy Riddles with Answers on Riddlepedia
Food & Drink

Apple Riddles: 30 Crunchy Riddles with Answers

30 riddles · tap Hint or Answer to reveal

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Fall is apple season: orchards fill up with families, lunch boxes fill up with apples, and classrooms fill up with apple crafts. These 30 original apple riddles cover all of it, from the stem to the seeds, from Johnny Appleseed to Isaac Newton, plus a few apple-picking math puzzles for grown-ups. Every riddle has a hint, so nobody gets stuck.

Teachers, the easy riddles work well as a morning warm-up during an apple unit, and the medium ones sneak in a little science and history. Save the tricky section for older kids who like a challenge.

Easy Apple Riddles for Kids

I start as a pink-and-white flower in spring and end as a crunchy snack in fall. I can be red, green or yellow. What am I?

Hint
I grow on a tree, and you might find me in a lunch box.
Answer
An apple

I’m the part of the apple you don’t eat. When you finish your snack, I’m what’s left in your hand. What am I?

Hint
I’m in the middle, and I usually go in the compost bin.
Answer
The core

I’m small, brown and shaped like a teardrop. Plant me, wait a few years, and I might grow into a tree. What am I?

Hint
Look in the little pockets in the middle of an apple.
Answer
An apple seed (also called a pip)

I’m the thin, shiny coat an apple wears. Some people cut me off in one long, curly strip. What am I?

Hint
Bananas and potatoes have one too.
Answer
The peel (the skin)

I’m a little brown stick on top of the apple. I held it onto the tree until someone picked it. What am I?

Hint
In an old playground game, you twist me while saying the alphabet.
Answer
The stem

I’m a place where apple trees grow in long, neat rows, and families visit me in the fall with baskets. What am I?

Hint
You go “picking” here, not shopping.
Answer
An orchard

What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?

Hint
Think about the bite you just took.
Answer
Finding half a worm!

I fly from blossom to blossom in spring, and without my help an apple tree would grow very few apples. What am I?

Hint
I’m black and yellow, and I carry pollen on my legs.
Answer
A bee

I’m apples cooked until they’re soft and mashed until they’re smooth. You eat me with a spoon, and I have no crunch at all. What am I?

Hint
The end of my name is something you might pour on pasta.
Answer
Applesauce

I’m an apple on a stick wearing a sticky, golden-brown coat. You’ll find me at fall fairs and Halloween parties. What am I?

Hint
My coat is made from melted sugar, butter and cream.
Answer
A caramel apple

Medium Apple Riddles

I’m a party game played with a tub of water. You can’t use your hands, only your teeth. What am I?

Hint
This works because apples float. About a quarter of an apple is air.
Answer
Bobbing for apples

I have a golden crust, cinnamon inside, and people say something very American is “as American as” me. What am I?

Hint
I’m often served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Answer
Apple pie

I’m squeezed out of a big pile of crushed apples. I’m cloudy and brown, and people sip me cold from a jug or hot with a cinnamon stick. What am I?

Hint
I’m pressed, not picked.
Answer
Apple cider

I planted apple nurseries across the American frontier in the early 1800s, and legend says I wore a tin pot as a hat. Who am I?

Hint
My nickname tells you what I carried in my sack.
Answer
Johnny Appleseed (his real name was John Chapman)

A falling apple got me wondering why things always fall down and never sideways. Who am I?

Hint
I’m an English scientist, and a unit of force is named after me.
Answer
Isaac Newton. The story says he watched an apple fall in his garden; it probably never hit him on the head.

A disguised queen offered me one shiny red apple, and a single bite sent me into a deep sleep. Who am I?

Hint
Seven small friends lived with me in the forest.
Answer
Snow White

I’m a city nicknamed after a fruit, even though I’m famous for skyscrapers, not orchards. What city am I?

Hint
The Statue of Liberty stands in my harbor.
Answer
New York City, “the Big Apple”

I’m a real apple, but I’m tiny and so sour that people usually turn me into jelly instead of eating me raw. What am I?

Hint
My name sounds like a beach creature that pinches.
Answer
A crab apple

Cut an apple across its middle instead of from top to bottom, and I appear in the center. What shape am I?

Hint
Look up at the night sky.
Answer
A five-pointed star, made by the five little seed pockets

Take a bite of an apple, leave it on the table, and soon the bitten part turns brown. What is the apple reacting with?

Hint
It’s all around you, and you breathe it in.
Answer
Oxygen in the air. It reacts with the apple’s juices once the skin is broken. A squeeze of lemon juice slows it down.

Tricky Apple Riddles for Grown-Ups

There are 10 apples in a bowl and you take away 3. How many apples do you have?

Hint
The question isn’t about the bowl.
Answer
3, the ones you took.

A basket holds 6 apples. Six children each take one apple, yet one apple is still in the basket. How?

Hint
One child took more than just an apple.
Answer
The last child took the basket with the apple still in it.

Plant a seed from a Honeycrisp apple and you’ll almost never get a Honeycrisp tree. So how do orchards grow thousands of identical Honeycrisp trees?

Hint
Farmers borrow a branch.
Answer
Grafting. A cutting from a Honeycrisp tree is joined onto the roots of another tree, so every Honeycrisp tree is a copy of the original.

The apple belongs to the same plant family as a famous flower, along with pears, cherries and strawberries. Which flower?

Hint
Its stems have thorns, and its fruits are called hips.
Answer
The rose. Apples are in the rose family (Rosaceae).

I’m a bump at the front of your throat, and I’m named after a fruit from a famous garden. What am I?

Hint
The story of the first man and woman is behind my name.
Answer
The Adam’s apple

A Swiss hero was ordered to shoot an arrow through an apple balanced on his son’s head, and he hit it. Who was he?

Hint
A famous opera overture about him became a cowboy theme tune.
Answer
William Tell

What did the apple tree say to the farmer?

Hint
What does a farmer do to an apple tree in the fall?
Answer
“Stop picking on me!”

Every day of the week, a farmer picks twice as many apples as the day before. On Friday she picks 80 apples. How many did she pick on Monday?

Hint
Work backwards and halve.
Answer
  1. Monday 5, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 20, Thursday 40, Friday 80.

Ana fills a basket with apples in 20 minutes. Ben fills the same size basket in 30 minutes. If they work together on one basket, how long does it take?

Hint
Think about how much of the basket each person fills in one minute.
Answer
12 minutes. Ana fills 1/20 per minute and Ben 1/30, together 5/60 = 1/12 of the basket per minute.

Like an apple, I have a thin skin on the outside and a core in the middle, but you could never take a bite out of me. What am I?

Hint
You’re standing on me right now.
Answer
The Earth (its thin outer layer is the crust, and it has a core at the center)

Make It a Game

  • Apple basket draw: write each riddle on a paper apple and put them in a real basket. Kids pick one, read it aloud, and keep the apple if they solve it.
  • Orchard teams: split into the Reds and the Greens. A correct answer without the hint picks two apples (two points), with the hint one apple.
  • Apple unit warm-up: during an apple or fall unit, read one easy riddle each morning and one medium riddle after lunch. The medium ones make good starting points for a quick science or history chat.
  • Taste test finale: after the tricky round, slice a few apple varieties and cut one across the middle to show the star.

Hungry for more? Try our fall riddles, our fruit riddles or our classroom riddles.