What word am I? (Riley riddle)

Question

My ending is beginning.
My beginning is the end of middle.
My middle holds it all together.
Now read again this riddle!

The original Riley riddle: https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/62349/my-prefix-is-food-my-suffix-is-rude — Gordon Bean, Dec 18 '19 at 16:35

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 18 '19 at 15:36

6

You might be

LEGO

My ending is beginning.

le-GO

My beginning is the end of middle.

midd-LE

My middle holds it all together.

The middle of a lego is where it holds on to the next piece

Now read again this riddle!

building a lego structure

answered Dec 18 '19 at 15:36

MacGyver88

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Clever - as a fan of the blocks, I enjoyed your solution. :) Your interpretation of "my middle" misses the spirit of the Riley Riddle style (e.g. middle=infix), focusing more on the meaning of the word than on the word itself. – Gordon Bean Dec 18 '19 at 16:32
@Gordon, I guess I'll have to look up what that is. Thx. – MacGyver88 Dec 18 '19 at 16:34
1

I added a link to the original in the comment. – Gordon Bean Dec 18 '19 at 16:35

MacGyver88 · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-19T13:58:36.903

3

Final Answer

RESTART

My ending is beginning.

START

My beginning is the end of middle.

co-RE

My middle holds it all together.

STAR - holds the planets in orbit with its gravity

Now read again this riddle!

RESTART

RESUME

My ending is beginning.
word-play - "My Ending" the beginning letters of those words are ME

My beginning is the end of middle.
co-RE

My middle holds it all together.
SUM holds all those added together

Now read again this riddle!
After interrupting the riddle while solving each line, one would be told to RESUME reading this riddle without interruption

edited Dec 19 '19 at 13:58

answered Dec 18 '19 at 17:55

MacGyver88

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Not quite - as you say, some of it is a bit of a stretch. ;) But this answer has some elements that are on the right track. – Gordon Bean Dec 18 '19 at 19:48
I see that you changed your answer since I commented - you're on the right track. – Gordon Bean Dec 19 '19 at 04:07
@Gordon, I changed it again. This is it though. I've had my chances. – MacGyver88 Dec 19 '19 at 14:01
Your final answer is correct! Nice work. Although your interpretation of one of the clues is not the one I had intended, you still arrived at the right conclusion, and I figured that if Bilbo Baggins can get credit for "time" without actually solving the riddle, it's the destination that counts, not the precise journey. ;) – Gordon Bean Dec 19 '19 at 15:19
@Gordon, where you looking for rot13(gne?) – MacGyver88 Dec 19 '19 at 15:21
1

gungfjungvunqvazvaq – Gordon Bean Dec 19 '19 at 15:24

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 19 '19 at 07:01

2

I get the feeling this is a tricksy one. A bit of a rogue thought this, but is the word:

MY?

My ending is beginning.

The ending 'MY' is also the beginning, since the word is just 2 letters long...

My beginning is the end of middle.

Being 2 letters long in its totality, the beginning 'MY' is not just the end of the middle - it's also the start of the middle and the whole of the middle!

My middle holds it all together.

The central ('middle') component 'MY' is the entirety of the word, i.e. It 'holds it all'.

Now read again this riddle!

Reading it through again with this answer in mind, you can see how this tricksy bit of wordplay makes sense...!

answered Dec 19 '19 at 07:01

Stiv

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Not quite - perhaps too "rogue" an attempt. ;) Read the riddle linked in my comment to get an idea of the spirit of the genre. – Gordon Bean Dec 19 '19 at 15:21
@GordonBean Oh, I'm very familiar with the genre - I just wondered whether you were riffing off it and giving it an 'outside the box' twist... Clearly not, though! :) (And to be honest, I'm glad this is incorrect - it wouldn't have been a satisfying solution...!) – Stiv Dec 19 '19 at 15:23
Haha! Fair enough. – Gordon Bean Dec 19 '19 at 15:26

What word am I? (Riley riddle)

3 Answers3