Crossword Genius

Singular noun arranged around punctuation mark, shortly (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

uncommon

'singular' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'noun arranged around punctuation mark shortly' is the wordplay.
'arranged' indicates anagramming the letters.
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'punctuation mark' becomes 'comma' (comma is a kind of punctuation mark).
'shortly' means to remove the last letter.
'noun' anagrammed gives 'unon'.
'comma' with its final letter taken off is 'comm'.
'unon' going around 'comm' is 'UNCOMMON'.

(Other definitions for uncommon that I've seen before include "Rarely seen" , "Infrequent" , "Not normal or usual" , "Extraordinary - rare" , "Strange" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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