American needs time for practice (5)
I believe the answer is:
usage
'for practice' is the definition.
(usage is a kind of practice)
'american needs time' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'US' (United States).
'needs' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'time' becomes 'age' (an age is a period of time).
'us'+'age'='USAGE'
(Other definitions for usage that I've seen before include "Common practice" , "Habitual custom" , "Convention" , "Acceptable language" , "Usual practice" .)