Crossword Genius

Data on America’s eminence (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

status

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'eminence' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'data on america's' is the wordplay.
'data on' becomes 'stat' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'america's' becomes 'US'' ('US' can be a synonym of 'america').
'stat'+'us'='STATUS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for status that I've seen before include "and 9: Existing state of affairs" , "legal position" , "Position eg in society" , "Facebook feature" , "High social standing" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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