He pretends to work (5)
I believe the answer is:
actor
'he pretends' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'work' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'work' could be 'act' (synonyms) and 'act' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'or' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for actor that I've seen before include "Performer in drama" , "Person performing on stage or screen" , "Films/stage worker" , "Luvvy" , "ham" .)