Credit note (9)
I believe the answer is:
attribute
'credit' is the definition.
(I know that credit is a kind of attribute)
'note' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'note' could be 'ut' (historical name for the musical note 'do') and 'ut' is present in 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 attribute that I've seen before include "Quality characteristic of person or thing" , "Ascribe (to a cause)" , "Credit - property" , "Character" , "A special characteristic" .)