Almost new and ahead of its time (6)
I believe the answer is:
nearly
'almost' is the definition.
(I know that almost can be written as nearly)
'new and ahead of its time' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'new' could be 'early' (similar in meaning) and 'early' is located in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nearly that I've seen before include "More or less" , "Not entirely" , "Almost, not quite" , "Noon at eleven fifty nine am" , "pretty much" .)