Crossword Genius

A distinctive feature of the said salver (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

trait

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'a distinctive feature' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'the said salver' is the wordplay.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'said salver' becomes 'rait' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'rait'='TRAIT'

'of' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for trait that I've seen before include "Distinguishing characteristic of personality" , "Quirk" , "Mannerism" , "Distinguishing feature" , "A characteristic of straitened kind" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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