Different thing from day (5)
I believe the answer is:
night
'day' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both states of affairs as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'different thing' is the wordplay.
'different' indicates an anagram.
'thing' with letters rearranged gives 'NIGHT'.
'from' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for night that I've seen before include "Time of darkness" , "Time without 10" , "Hours of darkness" , "follow-up to 16 [TWILIGHT]" , "Dark period" .)