Female concealing self-centredness? (5)
I believe the answer is:
helen
'female concealing self-centredness?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'female concealing self-centredness?' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'hen' (female chicken).
'concealing' is an insertion indicator.
'self-centredness?' becomes 'el' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'hen' enclosing 'el' is 'HELEN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for helen that I've seen before include "Spartan beauty" , "Greek woman famed for beauty" , "Her face launched a thousand ships" , "Girl" , "beautiful woman" .)