Crossword Genius

College once left almost 50p as an example (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

polygon

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'50p as an example' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'college once left almost' is the wordplay.
'college once' becomes 'poly' (short for polytechnic, former type of college).
'left' becomes 'gone' (go can mean to leave).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'gone' with its final letter taken off is 'gon'.
'poly'+'gon'='POLYGON'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for polygon that I've seen before include "shape" , "Closed plane figure bounded by straight sides" , "Closed plane figure with three or more straight sides" , "Figure with many sides" , "Many-sided plane figure" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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