Hands regularly relax in extremely challenging situation (9)
I believe the answer is:
adversity
'challenging situation' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both states of affairs as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'hands regularly relax in extremely' is the wordplay.
'regularly' indicates alternate letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
'relax' becomes 'sit' (sitting is a type of relaxing).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'extremely' becomes 'very' (very can mean extremely or considerably).
The alternating letters of 'hands' are 'ad'.
'sit' placed within 'very' is 'versity'.
'ad'+'versity'='ADVERSITY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adversity that I've seen before include "State of misfortune or affliction" , "Hard times or misfortune" , "Misfortune, hardship" , "Circumstances that cause trouble or sorrow" .)