Characteristic spirit of European - Thomas (5)

I believe the answer is:

ethos

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'characteristic spirit' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.

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(Other definitions for ethos that I've seen before include "Spirit (of a group, say)" , "Distinctive traits of a culture, time etc" , "Characteristic standards of those" , "Distinctive attitude (of culture, person etc)" , "Pervading spirit" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

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