High-ranking woman is worthless, say, on the inside (5)
I believe the answer is:
begum
'high-ranking woman' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'worthless say on the inside' is the wordplay.
'worthless' becomes 'bum' (bum can mean of poor quality).
'say' becomes 'eg' (both can mean for example).
'on the inside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'bum' placed around 'eg' is 'BEGUM'.
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for begum that I've seen before include "Muslim woman of high rank in India" , "High ranking female in India" , "High-ranking Muslim woman" , "She's high-ranking" , "Muslim princess" .)