Actual claim about ripe bananas (9)
I believe the answer is:
empirical
'actual' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'claim about ripe bananas' is the wordplay.
'about' says to put letters next to each other.
'bananas' indicates an anagram (informal term for mad).
'claim' put after 'ripe' is 'ripeclaim'.
'ripeclaim' is an anagram of 'EMPIRICAL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for empirical that I've seen before include "Replica I'm making from observation, not theory" , "dependent on trial" , "Based on observation or experiment, not on theory" , "experimental evidence" , "Established by experiment" .)