Doubled for Saturday, June 29, 2024
One picture, one hidden three-word chain. The first two words make a familiar phrase, the last two make another, and the middle word belongs to both. New to the game? Read how to play first.
Hints
Open them one at a time. Each one gives away a little more than the last.
Hint 1
The answer is 3 words long, with 8, 5 and 7 letters.
Hint 2
The shared word - the one that belongs to both phrases - has 5 letters and starts with S.
Hint 3
The first phrase is 2 words, the second is 2, and they overlap on one of them.
Hint 4
The bare minimum of employees, then the gathering nobody wanted in their calendar.
The answer
Stuck, or want to check? Opening this reveals the whole answer.
Reveal the answer
Skeleton Meeting
Skeleton staff and Staff meeting, joined on Staff.
Skeleton staff
A skeleton staff is the smallest number of employees needed to keep something running, as over a holiday.
Staff meeting
A staff meeting is the regular gathering of a workplace's employees to go over business.
How players did
Across 1,219 plays, 14% got the whole answer in one guess, 4% solved it without a miss, 19% got there after at least one wrong guess, 46% used a hint or finished on their last chance, and 17% did not get it.
This puzzle ran on June 29, 2024, June 29, 2025 and June 29, 2026.