What Has Hands but Cannot Clap? is one of the best-known riddles for kids, and a great one to try on friends. Read the riddle, take a guess, then tap Show Answer to check.
Riddle: What has hands but cannot clap?
Answer: Clock.
Need a hint?
Think about something you probably look at many times a day. Its “hands” move all the time, but they never touch each other.
Answer and explanation (spoiler!)
The answer is a clock.
The trick is the word hands. People have hands with fingers, so we can clap. A clock’s “hands” are the pointers that move around its face: the short hour hand and the long minute hand, and often a thin second hand too.
Those hands move all day long, but they’re fixed to the centre of the clock and point in different directions, so they can never come together to clap. That double meaning of an everyday word is what makes this riddle so satisfying.
Difficulty: Easy · Best for: ages 5 and up
Similar riddles
- What Has One Hand Longer Than the Other?
- What Has a Head and a Tail but No Body?
- What Has 88 Keys but Can’t Open a Single Door?
- What Has 4 Fingers and a Thumb but Is Not Living?
FAQ
Is there another answer?
A watch also works, because it has hands too. Most people accept “clock” or “watch”.
Why is this a riddle and not a joke?
A riddle hides its answer in a clue you have to think about. Here the clue is the double meaning of the word “hands”.