Crossword Genius

By being soft on royalty (3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

per

'by' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'soft on royalty' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano').
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'royalty' becomes 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'p'+'er'='PER'

'being' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for per that I've seen before include "According to" , "Preposition meaning for each" , "For each or every" , "Preposition indicating by means of" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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