As king, love to be among the common people (5)
I believe the answer is:
herod
'common people' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'as king love to be among' is the wordplay.
'as' becomes 'hed' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'king' becomes 'R' (abbreviation for rex, king in Latin).
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'to be among' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters are placed among others).
'r'+'o'='ro'
'hed' enclosing 'ro' is 'HEROD'.
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for herod that I've seen before include "Cruel king" , "Biblical king of Judaea" , "Massacre-of-Innocents king" , "Christ was born in the reign of . . . . . the Great (5)" , "King of Judea who ordered the death of children under two in Bethlehem" .)