Female graduate catches an illness (6)
I believe the answer is:
malady
'an illness' is the definition.
(I know that illness can be written as malady)
'female graduate catches' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'female' could be 'lady' (lady is a kind of female) and 'lady' is found in the answer.
'graduate' could be 'ma' (abbreviation for Master of Arts) and 'ma' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for malady that I've seen before include "Disease, ailment" , "Afflication" , "Sickness, ailment" , "affection" , "Complaint" .)