Elaborate rite involved in interpreting and exchanging letters (15)
I believe the answer is:
transliteration
'letters' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'elaborate rite involved in interpreting and exchanging' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'rite' is 'iter' which is present in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for transliteration that I've seen is " Rewriting of letters".)