Crossword Genius

Consider cutting endless red tape, oddly, to be most important (12)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

preponderate

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'consider' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't understand how they can define each other.

'cutting endless red tape oddly to be most important' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'red' is 'der' which is within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for preponderate that I've seen before include "rule" , "more important" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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