Dictator's annoyance with journalist reached its highest level (6)
I believe the answer is:
peaked
'level' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'dictator's annoyance with journalist reached its highest' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'journalist' could be 'ed' (short for editor) and 'ed' is found within the answer.
'highest' could be 'peak' (synonyms) and 'peak' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for peaked that I've seen before include "gave best performance" , "Reached top condition - on mountain top?" , "Reached highest point, say of fitness" , "Reached maximum intensity" , "Reached climax or culmination" .)