Leader of academy doubled up (5)
I believe the answer is:
ahead
'up' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'leader of academy doubled' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'leader' could be 'head' (head is a kind of leader) and 'head' is found within the answer.
'academy' could be 'a' (abbreviation for academy) and 'a' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ahead that I've seen before include "advanced" , "In the future" , "Forwards" , "Forward - in front" , "In the lead, in advance" .)