Crossword Genius

Conflict in playground? There are four sides to it (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rectangle

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'conflict' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.

'playground? there are four sides to it' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'playground?' could be 'rec' (short for recreation ground) and 'rec' is located in the answer.
'are' could be 'a' (short for 'are', historical unit of measurement) and 'a' is located in the answer.
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rectangle that I've seen before include "Parallelogram with four right angles" , "Four-sided figure" , "Shape of football pitch" , "regular sort of figure" , "Figure on plane" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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