American at any rate is the most stupid? (9)
I believe the answer is:
leastwise
'american at any rate is the most stupid?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'american at any rate is the' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'american' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is located in the answer.
'is' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leastwise that I've seen before include "anyway" , "infrequently occurring" , "in any case" , "in Hollywood at any rate" , "If nothing else" .)