The -gry riddle asks for three common English words ending in -gry, but only “hungry” and “angry” are still commonly used. Other variants use deceptive language to trick the listener. Most variations are distractions from actual word puzzles.
There are actually more than three words that end in -gry, but almost all of them have fallen out of common usage. The two words ending in -gry that have survived and are still commonly used are both adjectives: hungry and angry. When this particular puzzle was first created, at least two other words ending in -gry were still in fairly common use: meagry and aggry. Meagry referred to being thin, while aggry were polished stones used in some African jewelry.
The problem with the -gry riddle today is that those two words have also fallen out of popular usage, leaving only angry and hungry. There is no readily available answer for the third common word ending in -gry. The original -gry puzzle is often presented more as a trick question than an actual riddle.
A popular variant of the original -gry riddle depends on the observation skills of the listener. The narrator begins by telling the listener about two common words ending in -gry, which the listener can easily identify as “hungry” and “angry.” In this form of the -gry riddle, the narrator goes on to say that there are only three words in the “English language.” The narrator asks the listener to name the third word, assuring him that the answer has already been given. The correct answer is “language”, since it is the third word in the phrase “English language”.
Other variants of the original -gry riddle also depend on this deceptive language. The narrator can ask the listener to name three words ending in “gree”. The listener can come across as either hungry or angry, but leave a blank on the third -gry word. The correct answer in this case is agreement, since the narrator usually ends the riddle by saying “you will agree that I have already provided the answer”. The listener might only be thinking of the literal ending -gry, while the narrator was implying the phonetic sound of ‘gree’.
There are other variations of the -gry puzzle available on the Internet and in puzzle book collections. While some may require searching archaic dictionaries for examples of actual words ending in -gry, most of these riddles just use the original -gry question as a distraction from the actual word puzzle.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
