Charlie's best friend left where Americans live (5)
I believe the answer is:
linus
'charlie's' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'best friend left where americans live' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'left' could be 'l' (common abbreviation) and 'l' is located in the answer.
'americans' could be 'us' (United States) and 'us' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'in' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for linus that I've seen is " Lucy's brother".)