He will shortly receive a ring and reply (5)
I believe the answer is:
hello
'reply' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'he will shortly receive a ring' is the wordplay.
'shortly' says to take the final letters.
'receive a ring' becomes 'lo' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The last letter of 'will' is 'l'.
'he'+'l'+'lo'='HELLO'
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hello that I've seen before include "Expression of greeting" , "Musical with Satchmo and Streisand" , "Hi, howdy" , "Common greeting as on phone" , "Surprised cry" .)