Crossword Genius

Health resort son has joined annually (3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

spa

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'health resort' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'son has joined annually' is the wordplay.
'son' becomes 's'.
'has' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'joined annually' becomes 'pa' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
's'+'pa'='SPA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for spa that I've seen before include "town in Belgium" , "Boston" , "here for the good of his health?" , "Health resort at a mineral spring" , "A therapeutic hot spring" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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