The 'gry' puzzle is a puzzle that has croped up regularly in a number of places. This entry is designed to outline the puzzle, and describe the solution, and the way the puzzle has mutated, so the correct solution cannot be arrived at.

Some of you may not have heard of this puzzle, so here it is, in one of its many forms: "Angry and hungry are two words that end in 'gry'. There are three words in the English Language. The third word is something you use everyday, and if you read closely I've already told you." What is the third word?"The answer is given in the next section

The Solution

The solution is language. The key to this is the wording. When most people read this, it seems to be saying
"There are three words in the English Language that end in 'gry'". However, this is not really what is being asked. The second sentence should taken literally, that there are three words in The English Language, as a phrase. The third word of this is Language, and it fits the description. The first sentence is a red herring, and has nothing to do with the rest of the question. However, it works my implying that the other sentence are referring to words ending in 'gry'.

Mutated form

The mutated form reads something like this:"There are three words in the English langauge ending in 'gry', Angry and Hungry are two. The third is something you use everyday. What is it?" or sometimes "There are three words in the English language ending in 'gry'. Hungry and Angry are two, what is the third?"

The problem is that this is not what the question originally said. The people asking one of the mutated forms of the question have been fooled by the question, so have inadvertently changed the meaning to what they think the question means. It is a victim of its own success in a way.

There are in fact some words that end in 'gry' apart from Angry and Hungry, but that was not what the riddle was about, and they are certainly not common, or things you use everyday.