Asian neckwear, by the sound of it (4)
I believe the answer is:
thai
'asian' is the definition.
(Thai is an example)
'neckwear by the sound of it' is the wordplay.
'neckwear' becomes 'tie' (tie is a kind of neckwear).
'by the sound of it' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'tie' sounds like 'THAI'.
(Other definitions for thai that I've seen before include "Coming from Bangkok?" , "Native of Bangkok, say" , "Siamese" , "oriental language" , "Native of Southeast Asia" .)