Guides to find missing principal and former partners (7)
I believe the answer is:
indexes
'guides' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'missing principal and former partners' is the wordplay.
'missing principal' becomes 'ind' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'former partners' becomes 'exes' (ex-lovers).
'ind'+'exes'='INDEXES'
'to find' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for indexes that I've seen before include "Listings at rear of books" , "A-to-Z listings" , "A-Z listings" .)