Carbon, oxygen and phosphorus in heap forming ester? (8)
I believe the answer is:
compound
'ester?' is the definition.
(ester is a kind of compound)
'carbon oxygen and phosphorus in heap' is the wordplay.
'carbon oxygen' becomes 'co' (this might be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'phosphorus' becomes 'P' (P is the chemical symbol for phosphorus).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'heap' becomes 'mound' (synonyms).
'p' inserted inside 'mound' is 'mpound'.
'co'+'mpound'='COMPOUND'
'forming' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for compound that I've seen before include "Make worse; property enclosure" , "In this fracture, bone has pierced the skin" , "POW camp" , "Kind of interest accumulating on capital plus interest" , "Composed of two or more separate elements" .)