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Carefully chosen by Ray, French sweetie and revolutionary (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

recherche

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'carefully chosen' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'ray french sweetie and revolutionary' is the wordplay.
'ray' becomes 're' (ray is another spelling of the musical note re).
'french sweetie' becomes 'cher' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'revolutionary' becomes 'Che' (Che Guevara the Marxist revolutionary).
're'+'cher'+'che'='RECHERCHE'

'by' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for recherche that I've seen before include "choice" , "Rare, exotic, obscure" , "Rare or exotic (French)" , "Little-known" , "Rare or far-fetched, like her creche" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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