Doubled for Tuesday, October 8, 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 5 words long, with 3, 4, 7, 8 and 6 letters.
Hint 2
The shared word - the one that belongs to both phrases - has 7 letters and starts with M.
Hint 3
The first phrase is 3 words, the second is 3, and they overlap on one of them.
Hint 4
The least you can get away with, then a jail with no walls to speak of.
The answer
Stuck, or want to check? Opening this reveals the whole answer.
Reveal the answer
The Bare Security Prison
The bare minimum and Minimum security prison, joined on Minimum.
The bare minimum
The bare minimum is the least amount of effort or resources that will do, and no more.
Minimum security prison
A minimum-security prison is a low-security jail for non-violent offenders, with dormitories rather than cells.
How players did
Across 852 plays, 6% got the whole answer in one guess, 2% solved it without a miss, 3% got there after at least one wrong guess, 51% used a hint or finished on their last chance, and 37% did not get it.
This puzzle ran on October 8, 2024 and October 8, 2025.