He has his virtues (8)
I believe the answer is:
cardinal
'he has his virtues' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'he has his virtues' is the wordplay.
'he' becomes 'Al'.
'has' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'his virtues' becomes 'cardin' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'al' after 'cardin' is 'CARDINAL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cardinal that I've seen before include "papal adviser" , "Prince of the Roman Catholic Church" , "first" , "Most important number" , "Type of number or prelate" .)