State the words of a coward? (4)
I believe the answer is:
iran
'state' is the definition.
(Iran is an example)
'words of a coward?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for iran that I've seen before include "Persia today" , "Middle Eastern country" , "Iraq's neighbour" , "Middle East Islamic republic" , "Previously known as Persia" .)