Construction by one form of timber (5)
I believe the answer is:
ebony
'form of timber' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both human attributes as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'construction by one' is the wordplay.
'construction' indicates an anagram (answer constructed from certain letters).
'by'+'one'='byone'
'byone' is an anagram of 'EBONY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ebony that I've seen before include "Hard wood used for black piano keys and in cabinetwork" , "'Hard, dark wood (5)'" , "Heavy hard wood, usually black" , "Black hardwood" , "Very dark black" .)