Crossword Genius

Egyptian character, grand lady pharaoh evacuated (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

glyph

'egyptian character' is the definition.
(as in Egyptian hieroglyphs)

'grand lady pharaoh evacuated' is the wordplay.
'grand' becomes 'G' (synonyms).
'lady' becomes 'ly' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'evacuated' means to remove the middle letters.
'pharaoh' with its middle removed is 'ph'.
'g'+'ly'+'ph'='GLYPH'

(Other definitions for glyph that I've seen before include "Sculpted symbol" , "character in carving" , "Sculptured symbol; frieze groove" , "Sculptured character" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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