Growing whiff of sodium? (7)
I believe the answer is:
nascent
'growing' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'whiff of sodium?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'whiff' could be 'scent' (I've seen this before) and 'scent' is located in the answer.
'sodium?' could be 'na' (Na is the chemical symbol for sodium) and 'na' is found 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 nascent that I've seen before include "Incipient" , "awakening" , "starting to mature" , "just coming into effect" , "being developed" .)