The Viral 'There's a Woman in a Boat' Riddle Is Trickier Than You Might Think—Can You Solve It?

There’s a woman in a boat on a lake wearing a coat riddle

When it comes to riddles, there are two types of people: people who love them and people who hate them. While some individuals are naturally really good at solving riddles and appreciate their overall challenge, others find them incredibly frustrating and annoying. If you’re the type of person who finds them enjoyable, then the latest viral one is for you!

The most recent riddle that everyone is obsessed with is making waves online. It’s called “There’s a woman in a boat.” While the riddle itself doesn’t appear to be hard at first glance, it’s leaving people of all ages completely puzzled. The brain teaser is so tricky that people are blankly staring at their phone screen for long periods of time and continually guessing the wrong answer over and over again.

If you feel like you can beat it, give it a try! It’s not like other riddles where you have to use math skills to solve it, it’s more of a mystery that needs to be decoded. So, what are you waiting for? Put your detective hat on and see if you can solve the viral “There’s a woman in a boat” riddle. Warning: there are spoilers ahead so read on with caution. Good luck!

‘There’s a Woman in a Boat’ Riddle

Riddles come and go, but this particular one has been around for a while and it keeps baffling new audiences whenever it pops up. If you haven’t already seen it, the brain teaser goes:

“There is a woman in a boat, on a lake, wearing a coat. If you want to know her name, it’s in the riddle I just wrote. What’s her name?”

Hints for the Riddle

It seems like it’d be simple to figure out, right? However, it’s been stumping so many people online that it’s gone viral! If you want to be one of the few to solve it, here are a few hints that might help you.

To figure it out, make sure you read over it slowly.
Try not to think too hard about it because it’s actually not as hard as you’re probably making it out to be.
Keep in mind that the name you’re looking for isn’t common, so try to replace words with your name to see if you can make sense of it.
Focus on the first half of the riddle.

Answer

Did you figure it out? If not, we’re about to tell you the answer, so stop reading now if you don’t want to know quite yet. Once you learn what it is you’ll probably feel a little silly because you’ll wonder how you didn’t solve it sooner. The good news is, you can then tell it to your friends and family and see if they can solve it!

The woman sitting in the boat doesn’t have a traditional name by any means. Because of that, it tends to throw people off and leave them really confused, which is why it usually takes everyone a long time to guess it correctly. When it comes to the woman on the boat in this riddle, her name is…”There.”

Riddle Answer—Explained

The reason why this particular riddle went viral is simple: it’s short and leaves you searching for the answer in all the wrong places. The riddle does a great job because the name is a play on words.

When you first read the riddle and the opening line says, “There is a woman in a boat, on a lake, wearing a coat,” you don’t realize that her name is “There.” However, if that sentence had another name in it, like “Tessa,” you wouldn’t have a problem figuring out the answer: “Tessa is a woman in a boat, on a lake, wearing a coat.”