Cheese cutter oddly securing medal (5)
I believe the answer is:
comte
'cheese' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'cutter oddly securing medal' is the wordplay.
'oddly' indicates alternate letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
'securing' indicates putting letters inside.
'medal' becomes 'OM' (Order of Merit).
The alternating letters of 'cutter' are 'cte'.
'cte' placed around 'om' is 'COMTE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for comte that I've seen before include "Philosopher" , "French nobleman" , "Foreign nobleman" .)