What started the fire at sea? (7)
I believe the answer is:
lighter
'sea?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'what started the fire' is the wordplay.
'what' becomes 'er' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'started' says to put letters next to each other.
'the fire' becomes 'light'.
'er' put after 'light' is 'LIGHTER'.
'at' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lighter that I've seen before include "carrying less cargo?" , "that leads the way for others?" , "Barge; igniter" , "- boot; - bun; - ware" , "The girl (anag.)" .)