American prankster's obscure initiation of ritual (5)

I believe the answer is:

hazer

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'american' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'prankster's obscure initiation of ritual' is the wordplay.
'prankster's obscure' becomes 'haze' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'initiation of' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'ritual' is 'r'.
'haze'+'r'='HAZER'

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I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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