What is the third word? There are three common words in the English dictionary which end with the letters gry. Two of them are hungry and angry. The third one we use everyday and we all know what it means. If you have listened closely, you already know what it is.

The riddle is ill-stated, and one can argue that it has no answer, except for archaic words not used 'everyday'. However, some people have rationalized answers by taking advantage of the ambiguities. Here's an example:

The third word is energy. The riddle is carefully worded so that it doesn't state that the three letters must appear in a particular order. It does say the three words are common words, ruling out the archaic word gry. The wording "The third one we use everyday" is deliberately ambiguous in its use of `one', for it is energy we use every day, not necessarily the word `energy'. And we do all know what `energy' means.

However, for a more exhaustive account of the origin and various versions of this riddle, see Herb Weiner's analysis.

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