In 50/50, is tie break oddly strict? (7)
I believe the answer is:
literal
'strict?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in 5050 is tie break oddly' is the wordplay.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'5050' becomes 'll' (two Ls, Roman numerals for 50).
'oddly' indicates alternate letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
'is'+'tie'+'break'='istiebreak'
The alternate letters of 'istiebreak' are 'itera'.
'll' placed around 'itera' is 'LITERAL'.
(Other definitions for literal that I've seen before include "typographical error" , "A tiller (anag.)" , "Avoiding embellishment" , "According to the letter" , "Textual error" .)