Nervous part of speech (5)

I believe the answer is:

tense

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'nervous' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)

'part of speech' is the wordplay.
'part' becomes 'te' (te is a kind of part).
'of speech' becomes 'nse' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'te'+'nse'='TENSE'

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(Other definitions for tense that I've seen before include "past, say" , "Taut - timely verbal indication" , "Worried" , "show strain" , "far from comfortable" .)

I've seen this clue in The Mirror.

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