Correspondence showing dreadful spite by the French (7)
I believe the answer is:
epistle
'correspondence' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'dreadful spite by the french' is the wordplay.
'dreadful' indicates an anagram.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'spite' with letters rearranged gives 'epist'.
'epist'+'le'='EPISTLE'
'showing' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for epistle that I've seen before include "Specially long and formal letter" , "Paul's work" , "screed" , "Pets lie (anag)" , "Writing" .)