Encountered parochial organisation with a symbolic meaning (12)
I believe the answer is:
metaphorical
'symbolic meaning' is the definition.
'metaphorical' can be an answer for 'meaning' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'symbolic' bit.
'encountered parochial organisation' is the wordplay.
'encountered' becomes 'met' ('meet' can be a synonym of 'encounter').
'organisation' indicates an anagram.
'parochial' with letters rearranged gives 'aphorical'.
'met'+'aphorical'='METAPHORICAL'
'with a' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for metaphorical that I've seen before include "Like a figure of speech" , "Symbolic of something else" , "Figurative" , "not to be taken literally" .)