Exceptional charm almost encapsulates people with intelligence? (7)
I believe the answer is:
special
'exceptional' is the definition.
(I know that exceptional can be written as special)
'charm almost encapsulates people with intelligence?' is the wordplay.
'charm' becomes 'spell' (both can mean a bit of magic).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'encapsulates' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'people with intelligence?' becomes 'CIA' (Central Intelligence Agency).
'spell' with its last letter taken away is 'spel'.
'spel' enclosing 'cia' is 'SPECIAL'.
(Other definitions for special that I've seen before include "Particular, distinctive" , "Important; particular" , "Particularly favoured" , "Dish not on the normal menu" , "Remarkable" .)