In secret, cook up with heat from hot plate (4)
I believe the answer is:
plot
'in secret' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'cook up with heat from hot plate' is the wordplay.
'cook up' becomes 'ot' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'from' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'hot' becomes 'h'.
'h'+'plate'='hplate'
'hplate' with 'heat' taken out is 'pl'.
'ot' put after 'pl' is 'PLOT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plot that I've seen before include "are intriguing" , "Patch of ground" , "... of story, family ..." , "Story line - bit of land" , "Mark position" .)