Considerate of Attila, say, protecting mother? (5)
I believe the answer is:
human
'considerate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'attila say protecting mother?' is the wordplay.
'attila say' becomes 'hun' (attila is a kind of Hun).
'protecting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mother?' becomes 'ma' (ma is a kind of mother).
'hun' placed around 'ma' is 'HUMAN'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for human that I've seen before include "Not divine, animal or mechanical" , "Characteristic of people" , "Mortal; compassionate" , "Relating to mankind" , "Anthropoid" .)