Comment scratched, essentially after one bad pun (5)
I believe the answer is:
input
'comment' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'scratched essentially after one bad pun' is the wordplay.
'essentially' means to look at the middle letters.
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'bad' indicates anagramming the letters.
The middle letter of 'scratched' is 't'.
'pun' is an anagram of 'npu'.
'i'+'npu'='inpu'
't' put after 'inpu' is 'INPUT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for input that I've seen before include "Person's contribution (to activity); electrical signal" , "supply" , "Contributory remark(s)" , "Data etc supplied to computer" , "Person's contribution (to a project)" .)