Empty sentiment and prevailing discord (6)
I believe the answer is:
strife
'discord' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'empty sentiment and prevailing' is the wordplay.
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'prevailing' becomes 'rife' (synonyms).
'sentiment' with its centre taken out is 'st'.
'st'+'rife'='STRIFE'
(Other definitions for strife that I've seen before include "Bitter conflict" , "Contention or contest" , "Conflict, quarrelling" , "Conflict, dissension" , "Conflict, dispute" .)