As possessed by the penniless (3)
I believe the answer is:
nil
'as' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'possessed by the penniless' is the wordplay.
'possessed by' indicates a hidden word.
'NIL' is hidden within 'penniless'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nil that I've seen before include "Nix, nada, nothing" , "Zero, zilch" , "Nothing, zilch" , "Nothing, zero" , "Nothing found in senility" .)