What can enter through the green glass door? Grab some friends and challenge them with this classic riddle.
Riddles offer a playful challenge to make sense of the seemingly nonsensical. And we humans tend to eat ’em up. That’s because our brains are hardwired to identify patterns in whatever the world throws at us. The “green glass door” riddle is a classic example that remains popular because it’s good fun for both kids and adults at parties or in the classroom. Moreover, this tough riddle lends itself to virtually endless variations—in other words, the “green glass door” riddle never gets old.
Unlike your all-time favorite “what am I?” riddles, the “green glass door” riddle asks you to consider not what something is but rather what a whole litany of things have in common. It works best as a group activity, so gather your pals or family members. The goal: identify what is and isn’t allowed through the door. And of course, have a super fun time in the process.
Ready to see how good you are at solving this short riddle? Read on to learn the “green glass door” riddle, then try your hand at coming up with a solution. When you’ve made your guess, scroll down for the answer.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more fun riddles, tech, travel, cleaning, humor and fun facts all week long.
The “green glass door” riddle
The riddle goes something like this: “There’s a green glass door, and some things can go through it, and some things cannot.”
With that, you can launch into the game. Keep reading to find out how it all comes together.
How to play the “green glass door” riddle
Once you’ve gathered the group, it’s time for the riddler to shine. They’ll begin by reciting the main part of this classic head-scratcher: There’s a green glass door, and some things can go through it, and some things cannot.
From there, the riddler offers up a pair that establishes a pattern (see the examples below). The two items are related in some obvious way, but only one thing in each pair meets the green glass door standard. The riddler can offer up more pairs as clues, but then it’s up to the players to figure out what that standard is.
Examples of “Green glass door” riddles
To get a feel for the riddle, let’s imagine the world of the metaphorical green glass door, where lots of things are allowed but others simply are not permissible. Take, for instance, the door itself. Although it’s green, it could also be yellow—but never red or blue.
Confused? The clues below further establish the pattern and may help you solve the brainteaser. Remember, the riddler will offer one or two of these to the players after sharing the initial riddle.
- “There’s a green glass door, and you can come through it with a carton of eggs but not with a box of doughnuts.”
- “There’s a green glass door, and you can come through it with a gallon of skim milk but not a quart of the stuff.”
- “Do you like houseplants? There’s a green glass door, and you can come through it with bamboo but not jade, orchids, philodendron or ivy.”
- “There’s a green glass door, and sadly, dogs and cats can’t go—unless they’re still puppies and kittens.”
- “There’s a green glass door, and under no circumstances can your pet bird go through—with the notable exception of parrots and parakeets. But macaws? They’re a no. Same with doves and canaries.”
If you’re a participant, and you think you know the solution, pipe up! Just remember to express it in the same form as the riddle itself. For example, you might say, “Aha! So toddlers can come through, but not babies?” That way, if there are multiple participants, the game can continue even after one of you solves the riddle.
Before we give away the solution, here’s one hint: The key to solving the “green glass door” riddle can be found in all four of the words that make up the phrase “green glass door riddle.”
The solution to the “green glass door” riddle
Did the hint give it away? What do the four words in “green glass door riddle” have in common? That would be the presence of double letters. If something is spelled with double letters, it can go through the green glass door. If there are no double letters in its name, then it can’t.
To review, you can bring a game of Scrabble through the green glass door, but not Monopoly. Likewise, the highly addictive online word game Connections is welcome, but Wordle, alas, is not.
The “green glass door” variations
One of the best things about the “green glass door” riddle is that it offers brainteasing entertainment in any number of settings. It’s just a matter of tweaking the proceedings, including the consequences for wrong answers. For example, it could be used as a riddle for teens in a structured setting, such as a classroom. There, a wrong answer could eliminate the player who offered it (kind of like how a spelling bee works).
In a social setting, a wrong answer could require the player who offered it to perform a task of some sort. The type of task will, of course, depend upon the context. For example, if you’re playing with your workout buddies, a wrong answer might require a number of push-ups. In the context of a cocktail party, a wrong answer could come at the price of a drink or dare.
Other ways to play the “green glass door” riddle
The one downside of the game is that once everyone knows what it takes to get through the green glass door (i.e., the double letters), it’s game over. However, another solution, so to speak, could be to appoint a new riddler to make up a new rule for getting through the metaphorical door. Like, only objects that require batteries (laptops but not desktops) or only words containing the letter w somewhere within.
Of course, when you’re out of new ideas, you can always look up other brainteasers to solve together. After all, it’s all about sharing a little fun with your crew.
Why trust us
Reader’s Digest is known for our humor and brain games, including quizzes, puzzles, riddles, word games, trivia, math, pattern and logic puzzles, guessing games, crosswords, rebus, hidden objects and spot-the-difference challenges. We’ve earned prestigious ASME awards for our entertainment content and have produced dozens of brainteaser books, including Word Searches, Word Power, Use Your Words, Fun Puzzles and Brain Ticklers, Mind Stretchers, Ultimate Christmas Puzzles and more. Our 10 published volumes of Mind Stretchers were edited by Allen D. Bragdon, founder of The Brainwaves Center and editor of Games magazine. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Source:
- PsychCentral: “All About Apophenia”
