Appears to be the way to the river (5)

I believe the answer is:

seems

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'appears to be' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'the way to the river' is the wordplay.
'the way to' becomes 'se' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'the river' becomes 'ems' (I've seen this before).
'se'+'ems'='SEEMS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for seems that I've seen before include "Gives a certain impression" , "Appears, looks" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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