Colour to fade, reportedly (3)
I believe the answer is:
dye
'colour' is the definition.
(dyeing is a kind of colouring)
'fade reportedly' is the wordplay.
'fade' becomes 'dy' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'reportedly' becomes 'e' (I've seen this in other clues).
'dy'+'e'='DYE'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dye that I've seen before include "Liquid used to change colour of clothes" , "Colouring matter" , "Tint" , "Colouring; sounds like fade" , "Soluble substance for staining or colouring" .)