English during Root's last century were deafening (9)
I believe the answer is:
thundered
'deafening' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs can sometimes mean the same thing.
'english during root's last century' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'during' indicates putting letters inside.
'root's' indicates one should take the final letters (I've seen 'roots of' mean this).
'century' becomes 'hundred' (synonyms).
The final letter of 'last' is 't'.
't'+'hundred'='thundred'
'e' inserted into 'thundred' is 'THUNDERED'.
'were' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for thundered that I've seen is " Did like the Times".)