A lot of soldiers, including marines (4)

I believe the answer is:

army

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'a lot' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'soldiers including marines' is the wordplay.
'soldiers' becomes 'ay' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'including' indicates putting letters inside.
'marines' becomes 'RM' (abbreviation for 'Royal Marines').
'ay' enclosing 'rm' is 'ARMY'.

'of' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for army that I've seen before include "Large military force" , "Land-fighting force" , "Large number of people" , "Ground forces" , "See 7" .)

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