Crossword Genius

Extraordinarily powerful article Poirot was on to (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

herculean

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'extraordinarily powerful' is the definition.
'herculean' can be an answer for 'powerful' (synonyms). I am not certain of the 'extraordinarily' bit.

'article poirot was on to' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'article' could be 'an' (indefinite article) and 'an' is present in the answer.
'poirot' could be 'hercule' (Hercule Poirot) and 'hercule' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for herculean that I've seen before include "Old Labour" , "Monumental (task)" , "Requiring very great effort" , "Enormously demanding (task)" , "Colossal" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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