Tradition has role to play (4)
I believe the answer is:
lore
'tradition' is the definition.
(I know that lore is a type of tradition)
'role to play' is the wordplay.
'to play' is an anagram indicator.
'role' is an anagram of 'LORE'.
'has' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for lore that I've seen before include "Role for learning" , "Ancient learning" , "Tales of old" , "old-fashioned thong" , "Body of knowledge" .)