City were ahead, flipping Hearts pitiful essentially (5)
I believe the answer is:
delhi
'city' is the definition.
(Delhi is an example)
'were ahead flipping hearts pitiful essentially' is the wordplay.
'were ahead' becomes 'led' (leading is a kind of being. I am not sure about the 'ahead' bit.).
'flipping' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'hearts' becomes 'h' (abbreviation used in card games e.g. bridge).
'essentially' indicates the central letters.
The central letter of 'pitiful' is 'i'.
'led' in reverse letter order is 'del'.
'del'+'h'+'i'='DELHI'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for delhi that I've seen before include "Ancient city" , "Capital at one time" , "It's also new in India" , "New -, Asian capital" , "Capital of India" .)