A quiet mother maybe easily understood (8)
I believe the answer is:
apparent
'easily understood' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs occasionally mean the same thing.
'a quiet mother' is the wordplay.
'quiet' becomes 'p' (music symbol for 'piano', ie soft or quiet).
'mother' becomes 'parent' (I've seen this in other clues).
'a'+'p'+'parent'='APPARENT'
'maybe' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apparent that I've seen before include "That may be seen" , "readily understood" , "Quite obvious and clear" , "Clearly visible" , "Pane part may be quite obvious" .)