Former area far from the coast, not island (8)
I believe the answer is:
anterior
'former' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'area far from the coast not island' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'area' could be 'rio' (Rio is an example) and 'rio' is located in the answer.
'from' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for anterior that I've seen before include "Previous, to the fore" , "Nearer the front; earlier" , "Nearer the front; prior (to)" , "Coming before in position or time" , "Located before, in time or place" .)