Character of fruit — superior, note (6)
I believe the answer is:
figure
'character' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'fruit superior note' is the wordplay.
'fruit' becomes 'fig' (fig is a kind of fruit).
'superior' becomes 'u' (I've seen this in other clues).
'note' becomes 're' (**).
'fig'+'u'+'re'='FIGURE'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for figure that I've seen before include "Number; statue" , "Imagine; integer" , "Judge to be probable, estimate" , "Person's bodily shape" , "Shape; amount of money" .)