Are resident in home, like family members, often (7)
I believe the answer is:
nearest
'often' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs. Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'are resident in home like family members' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'are' is 'ear' which is within the answer.
'home' could be 'nest' (a bird's home) and 'nest' is found within the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nearest that I've seen before include "Relations" , "touching?" , "Close family members" , "Rat seen (anag.)" , "Most imminent - most mean" .)