Crossword Genius

Animal backbone? Not good guess (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

assumption

'guess' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'animal backbone? not good' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'ass' (term for a donkey).
'backbone?' becomes 'gumption' (gumption can mean spirit or backbone).
'not' is a deletion indicator.
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'gumption' with 'g' taken out is 'umption'.
'ass'+'umption'='ASSUMPTION'

(Other definitions for assumption that I've seen before include "Church festival" , "Catholic feast" , "Belief" , "Supposition" , "taken for granted" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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