My prefix causes bells, whistles, and dings.
My suffix is done by all living things.
My infix causes all empires to untangle.
My whole, they tend to dangle.
Here's my first jab at the so called "Riley Riddle." Enjoy solving it!
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asked Mar 2, 2021 at 21:13
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1 Answer
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5
You are an:
APPENDAGE
My prefix causes bells, whistles, and dings.
Many an APP on a phone or tablet device makes a sound when sending a notification. Commonly these sounds take the form of bells, whistles and dings.
My suffix is done by all living things.
All living things AGE i.e. get older as time goes by.
My infix causes all empires to untangle.
All empires - be they Greek, Roman or Galactic (Star Wars reference) - one day come to an END.
My whole, they tend to dangle.
An APPENDAGE is part of a living organism that projects out from the body (sometimes dangling), like limbs, mouthparts, fins or a tail.
As for the title, I am not entirely sure but:
many starfishes tend to have five appendages, in the form of their 'arms'. So perhaps this puzzle would appeal to them!
As pointed out by @JoeKerr in comments, if we restrict our thinking to only the major appendages of the human body (since there are many other body parts that are usually considered to be appendages as well) then humans would be considered to have five main appendages too - the head, two arms, and two legs. This is likely more what the OP was thinking with the title!
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1$\begingroup$ For the title it could also be because humans have 5 appendages, although it works for starfishes as well. $\endgroup$– Area 51Mar 3, 2021 at 0:03
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$\begingroup$ @JoeKerr Do you have a source you could share for that? Because I can't find anywhere that says we have just 5! (I did look, thinking this might be the intent...) We have four limbs obviously, but then there's the head and the sex organs, and many sources also count each of the fingers, toes, nose and ears, etc... $\endgroup$– StivMar 3, 2021 at 7:19
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$\begingroup$ That's true, but I was just counting the 5 major appendages, the two arms, the head, and the two legs, although you are correct that there's many others when you are counting the minor appendages as well. $\endgroup$– Area 51Mar 3, 2021 at 13:47
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$\begingroup$ @JoeKerr 'Major appendages' might be the best way to describe them actually - I'll include that in the write-up. Thanks :) $\endgroup$– StivMar 3, 2021 at 14:04
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$\begingroup$ Well, erm, two arms, two legs, and an organ, was, um, more meant, as a joke. Hence dangle... Your answer is perfectly fine as is, though. $\endgroup$ Mar 3, 2021 at 18:00