Crossword Genius

House gathering later than late in the evening? (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

attendance

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'house' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'gathering later than late in the evening?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'gathering' could be 'dance' (dance is a kind of gathering) and 'dance' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for attendance that I've seen before include "People present" , "Number present" , "how many are watching?" , "Service" , "Turnout" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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