Read letters, starting to swear and hide (5)
I believe the answer is:
spelt
'read letters' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'starting to swear and hide' is the wordplay.
'starting to' suggests taking the first letters.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'hide' becomes 'pelt' (synonyms).
The first letter of 'swear' is 's'.
's'+'pelt'='SPELT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spelt that I've seen before include "Kind of wheat" , "Given letter by letter; wheat" , "Recited the letters of a word" , "An old type of wheat" , "cereal" .)