Learned following second time (4)
I believe the answer is:
sage
'learned' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'following second time' is the wordplay.
'following' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'second' becomes 's' (common abbreviation).
'time' becomes 'age' (age is a kind of time**).
's'+'age' is 'SAGE'.
(Other definitions for sage that I've seen before include "Herb for the wise one" , "Herb used in cooking" , "Solon, for instance" , "Man of wisdom" , "Oracle; herb" .)