Language Society cryptic ranks above sex (8)
I believe the answer is:
sanskrit
'language' is the definition.
(Sanskrit is an example)
'society cryptic ranks above sex' is the wordplay.
'society' becomes 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations).
'cryptic' indicates anagramming the letters (a cryptic or obscure order of the letters).
'above' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters go above others).
'sex' becomes 'it' (common euphemism).
'ranks' is an anagram of 'anskr'.
's'+'anskr'+'it'='SANSKRIT'
(Other definitions for sanskrit that I've seen before include "Ancient language of Hindus in India" , "Ancient Indo-European language" , "Ancient Hindu tongue" , "Ancient Indian language" , "Ancient official language of India" .)