Cold-blooded type, foreign character divides churchless environment (9)
I believe the answer is:
amphibian
'cold-blooded type' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'foreign character divides churchless environment' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'character' could be 'phi' (phi is a kind of letter of the alphabet) and 'phi' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for amphibian that I've seen before include "Eg, newt or toad" , "Animal that lives on land and in water" , "Animal able to live in both land and water" , "Frog, toad or newt" , "aircraft" .)