A nun that's abridged religious work is diligent (10)

I believe the answer is:

persistent

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'diligent' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)

'a nun that's abridged religious work' is the wordplay.
'a' becomes 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day').
'nun' becomes 'sister' (a nun might be called sister).
'that's abridged' means to remove the last letter.
'religious work' becomes 'nt' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'sister' with its final letter taken away is 'siste'.
'per'+'siste'+'nt'='PERSISTENT'

'is' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for persistent that I've seen before include "hanging on" , "Lasting, prolonged" , "Ongoing" , "fixed" , "Determined" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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