He will shortly ring to say it (5)
I believe the answer is:
hello
'he' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'shortly ring to say it' is the wordplay.
'shortly' means to remove the first letter.
'ring' becomes 'O' (letter resembling a ring).
'to say' shows a homophone (sound like).
'it' becomes 'ello' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'o' sounds like 'oh'.
'oh' with its first letter taken away is 'h'.
'h'+'ello'='HELLO'
'will' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hello that I've seen before include "A salutation" , "Welcome" , "opener?" , "Hi, howdy" , "Expression of greeting" .)