Characteristic of a m-mark of respect (9)
I believe the answer is:
attribute
'characteristic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a m-mark of respect' is the wordplay.
'm-mark of respect' becomes 'ttribute' ('tribute' said with a stammer like 'mark of respect' was; I've seen this before).
'a'+'ttribute'='ATTRIBUTE'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for attribute that I've seen before include "Ascribe (to a cause)" , "Assign" , "A special characteristic" , "Quality characteristic of person or thing" , "Credit - property" .)