He has a taste for the sea (4)
I believe the answer is:
salt
'he has a taste for the sea' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'he has a taste for the' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'he' could be 'sal' and 'sal' is located in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for salt that I've seen before include "Brackish" , "Seasoned sailor" , "Pile up" , "Seasoning; old sailor" , "Crystalline substance for the table" .)