A mother for one who was motherless (4)
I believe the answer is:
adam
'a mother for one who was motherless' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a mother for one' is the wordplay.
'a mother' becomes 'dam' (female parent of an animal).
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'one' becomes 'a' (a thing is one thing).
'dam' put after 'a' is 'ADAM'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adam that I've seen before include "- - Bede, novel" , "Man No. 1" , "Male" , "man expelled from garden" , "First Christian ancestor" .)