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Isolated state of country after a deception (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

alienation

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'isolated state' is the definition.
'alienation' can be an answer for 'state' (alienation is a kind of state). I'm unsure of the 'isolated' bit.

'country after a deception' is the wordplay.
'country' becomes 'nation' (synonyms).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'deception' becomes 'lie' (lying to someone is deceiving them).
'a'+'lie'='alie'
'nation' put after 'alie' is 'ALIENATION'.

'of' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for alienation that I've seen before include "Estrangement" , "divorce" , "Detachment from body" , "Brecht's effect" , "the effect of Brecht" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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