16 rebus puzzles with answers, and the word they never print
I'm Heron. I coach humans through numbers, and I once stared at a card reading GEGS for a solid minute and decided it was Dutch.
Let's get you through sixteen of these faster than that, with the answers covered until you commit.
Why the zero card says three degrees
The degrees on that card are diplomas. B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. make three of them, and the line parks all three underneath the zero.
The word “below” is printed nowhere. The layout says it for free, and that is the one move every card on this page is built on.
Temperature and angles both own the word “degrees”, which is why 32 and 90 feel so reasonable. Neither reading has anything on the card to stand on: those are diplomas.
Round one: rebus puzzles where the layout is the word
Seven cards, and each one spends its answer on a word it refuses to print. Read what is there, then say out loud where it sits.
We number from the zero card, so round one opens at 2. Keep an honest tally: the poll at the end asks for it.
Hosting a party?
Riddle 2 of 16
STANDI
Hint: The answer says where the I is sitting.
I understand
1I sits under STANDread the position, not the letters
2I + under + standthe gap supplies the middle word
3= I understandtwo printed words, three spoken ones
Say “understand” and you are one word short: nothing spells “under”, so the empty space above the I has to.
Riddle 3 of 16
MINDMATTER
Hint: Both words are printed, and the answer has three.
Mind over matter
1MIND rides above MATTERtwo words, one on each line
2mind + over + matterthe stack is the word over
3= mind over mattera phrase about willpower
The two printed words are the cheap half of this card, and the stack is the half most eyes treat as layout.
Riddle 4 of 16
TI JUST ME
Hint: Pull JUST out and close up what is left.
Just in time
1TI + ME = TIMEthe outer letters, closed up
2JUST sits inside TIMEso the layout says in
3= just in timethe word inside names the preposition
JUST moved inside TIME rather than next to it, and a word that moves inside brings “in” along with it.
Riddle 5 of 16
SIDE SIDE
Hint: Two of the same word, standing shoulder to shoulder.
Side by side
1SIDE, then SIDEone word, printed twice
2the gap between them says bynothing else separates them
3= side by sidetwo words give a three-word phrase
Counting the printed words gets you two, and the answer lives in the space between them.
Riddle 6 of 16
NOON GOOD
Hint: Which of the two words comes second?
Good afternoon
1GOOD comes after NOONorder is the whole clue here
2good + after + noonthe order is the hidden word
3= good afternoonone word swallows the other two
Read it left to right and you get “noon good”, which is this card with its hidden word dropped.
Riddle 7 of 16
AGE BEAUTY
Hint: Say which of the two words got there first.
Age before beauty
1AGE stands before BEAUTYorder again, pointing the other way
2age + before + beautythe mirror of the card above
3= age before beautywhat one guest says to another
One gap reads “after” and this one reads “before”, and only the order of the printed words decides which.
Riddle 8 of 16
BANANA
Hint: Put the two halves back together and you are holding a fruit.
Banana split
1BAN + ANA = BANANAsix letters, cut in two
2the cut itself says splitthe break does the talking
3= banana splitthe dessert is named for the cut
Every card in this round keeps its best word somewhere the printer cannot reach, and this one keeps it in the break.
Cards 6 and 7 are one card printed twice. The gap between two words reads “after” on one and “before” on the other, and only the order decides which.
Six of the seven hid a preposition, and the banana hid a word for the break itself. All seven kept it in a place no printer can reach.
We're calling this move The Silent Preposition: the small word a rebus pays its answer with and never prints. Under, over, in, by, after, before.
Nouns get the ink and the prepositions get the empty space. Round two keeps that habit and starts bending the letters themselves.
Round two: rebus puzzles that bend the letters
Eight cards left, and the letters stop behaving. They run backwards, drop out, double up, and a couple of them stop being letters and turn into sounds.
One question gets most of them: what was done to these letters? Reversed, shuffled, repeated, or cut short, and whatever it was is usually a word in the answer.
Some cards here want a count out of you before they want a word, the way eleven riddles with tiny arithmetic do, and two of them only open if you read them aloud.
Riddle 9 of 16
GNIKOOL
Hint: Read it from the far end.
Looking back
1GNIKOOL reversed = LOOKINGread right to left
2the reversing is word twoyou did something to get here
3= looking backthe card describes your own eyes
Seven letters look like a word from another language, and they are an English one wearing its spelling backwards.
Riddle 10 of 16
SYMPHON
Hint: Read it as a word and notice where it stops.
Unfinished symphony
1SYMPHON = SYMPHONY short one Ythe last letter never arrived
2a word stopped early is unfinishedthe missing part is the clue
3= unfinished symphonyeighteen letters from seven
One absent letter carries the longer half of the answer, and most eyes hand it over for free.
Riddle 11 of 16
MILL1ON
Hint: There is a digit hiding in that word.
One in a million
1MILL1ON = MILLION, digit for an Ione character swapped
21 reads as one, and it sits insideposition plus pronunciation
3= one in a millionthe odds are printed in the word
The card pays for every word but the “a”, and the digit is as easy to read as a letter, which is the whole hope.
Riddle 12 of 16
DICE DICE
Hint: Say what two of them are called, out loud.
Paradise
1two dice = a pair of dicename the quantity out loud
2“pair of dice” said at speedthe sound is the answer
3= paradiseone word from a gambling table
This card pays in sound, so reading it in your head keeps the answer locked.
Riddle 13 of 16
GEGS
Hint: Four letters, and the right four for a breakfast.
Scrambled eggs
1GEGS holds E, G, G, Sthe letters of EGGS, reordered
2the shuffling is word onename what was done to them
3= scrambled eggsfour letters, two words
Four letters carry a two-word answer, and only one of those words is anywhere on the card.
Riddle 14 of 16
ECAF
Hint: Turn the letters around, then say what you just did.
About face
1ECAF reversed = FACEthe word spun around
2spinning around = about facea drill sergeant would shout it
3= about facethe instruction and the answer match
Card 9 reversed a word and called it “back”, and this one reverses a word and calls it “about”.
Riddle 15 of 16
CCCCCCC
Hint: Count them, then say the letter out loud.
Seven seas
17 letter Cs on the cardcount before you read
2C said out loud = seathe sound carries word two
3= seven seasan ocean out of one letter
The count is the first word and the sound is the second, so dropping either leaves you with a row of letters.
Riddle 16 of 16
GROUNDFEET FEET FEET FEET FEET FEET
Hint: Count the feet, then say where they are.
Six feet underground
1FEET × 6, all of it under GROUNDcount, then read the position
2six + feet + under + groundsix and under are both unprinted
3= six feet undergroundthe gloomiest card on the page
If you landed on “six feet under”, count it: GROUND is printed too, and the preposition between them never is.
This game is older than puzzle books. The name is Latin for “by things”, the ablative plural of res, and English has had it on record since 1605.
That is our card 2 and a small word, printed two and a half centuries early. Tiny words were worth a picture even then, and we are still skipping them on the way to the nouns, which is what slow reading fixes here and in a grid that fills itself in.
What to remember
Read the letters, then read the room. Position, order, size, and gaps are all words, and none of them get printed.
Say it out loud. Two of these cards pay in sound, and silent reading never collects.
Name what was done to the letters. Reversed, shuffled, repeated, cut short: that word is usually the first word of the answer.
Honest tally: how many did you crack without peeking?
0–5
0%
6–10
0%
11–15
0%
All 16
0%
FAQ
A rebus spells a word or a phrase with pictures, letters, and the way they are arranged. Merriam-Webster traces the name to Latin rebus, “by things”, and records the word in English from 1605. The arrangement carries as much of the answer as the letters do: a card reading STAND with an I under it says “I understand”.
Two passes. First read what is printed, then say out loud where it sits: under, over, inside, between, after, before, split. That position word is almost always part of the answer, and it is the part nobody prints. If the letters themselves look wrong, name what was done to them: reversed, shuffled, repeated, or cut short.
Three degrees below zero. The three diplomas are the degrees, the line puts them under the zero, and the word “below” never appears on the card. The pull toward 32 or 90 comes from reading “degrees” as temperature or as angles.
They train one narrow habit: noticing the information you were about to skip. Letters grab attention and layout does not, so every card gives you a few seconds of practice at reading the thing most eyes treat as decoration. Sixteen cards is sixteen reps of that.
