The more you take away from me, the bigger I get. What am I?

How to think about it

1. Think of something that is really an absence: a gap, a space, a shape made of what is not there.
2. Removing material from around an absence makes the absence larger.
3. The hint says to grab a shovel. What grows every time you lift out a shovelful of dirt?
4. A hole gets bigger with every scoop you take away.

Why “a hole” is the answer

A hole is empty space, so the more earth you remove, the larger the hole becomes. The riddle only sounds impossible because we picture an object that shrinks when you take parts off it. A hole is the opposite kind of thing: it is made of removal.

Common wrong answers

• A debt. A debt grows when you borrow more, not when you take money away, so the direction is wrong.
• A puzzle. Taking pieces out of a puzzle leaves gaps, but the puzzle itself does not get bigger.