Crossword Genius

Capital assembled in very short order (5)

Ross

I think it could be either:

sofia

dover
I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'capital' is the definition.
(capital of Bulgaria)

'assembled in very short order' is the wordplay.
'assembled in very' becomes 'so' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'order' becomes 'fiat' (synonyms).
'fiat' with its final letter taken away is 'fia'.
'so'+'fia'='SOFIA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sofia that I've seen before include "Bulgarian city" , "Capital of Bulgaria" , "capital city" , "seat of government" , "Balkan capital" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app