Deeply sad tendency in an audience (12)

I believe the answer is:

heartrending

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'deeply sad' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'tendency in an audience' is the wordplay.
'tendency' becomes 'trend' (synonyms).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'an audience' becomes 'hearing' ('hearing' can be a synonym of 'audience').
'trend' going within 'hearing' is 'HEARTRENDING'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for heartrending that I've seen before include "causing great sadness" , "Distressing" , "Tragic" , "Agonising" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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