Home / Riddles / Logic riddles / What is always in front of you but can never be seen?
Logic riddles
What is always in front of you but can never be seen?
A time riddle hiding behind a space word. Something is always ahead of you, yet you can never look at it directly.
What is always in front of you but can never be seen?
Hint: Think about time.
Reveal the answer
The future
The future lies ahead of you, but you cannot see it yet.
How to solve it (spoilers)
How to think about it
- “In front of you” normally means a place, but anything in a place can be seen, so the riddle must mean ahead in time.
- What lies ahead of everyone, all the time?
- The next moment, the next day, the years to come. None of it can be seen until it arrives, and then it is the present.
- The future is always ahead and never visible.
Why “the future” is the answer
The future is always ahead of you in time, and by definition you cannot see it, because the moment you see anything it has become the present. The riddle borrows the spatial phrase “in front of” for time, which is also how English speakers naturally talk about what is coming. Your nose is a joke answer that uses the spatial meaning instead.
Common wrong answers
- Your nose. Your nose is in front of you and hard to see, but you can see it in a mirror, so “never” fails.
- Air. Air is in front of you and invisible, but it is also behind and around you, and the riddle wants something only ahead.
Related riddles
- The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
- What goes up but never comes down?
- What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
- The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
- What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Want a fresh one every week? Try the riddle of the week.