Dread admitting a king’s return to the land of the living (5)
I believe the answer is:
awake
'return to the land of the living' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'dread admitting a king's' is the wordplay.
'dread' becomes 'awe' (awe can mean a feeling of dread).
'admitting' is an insertion indicator (admit can mean to welcome in or accept).
'king' becomes 'k' (abbreviation for king in chess).
'a'+'k'='ak'
'awe' enclosing 'ak' is 'AWAKE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for awake that I've seen before include "Completely conscious" , "Cease sleeping" , "Patriotic song 'The West's .....'" , "Stop sleeping" , "Unable to sleep" .)