Crossword Genius

Mad when “anise” is misspelled, with an extra N (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

insane

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'mad' is the definition.
(I know that mad can be written as insane)

'is misspelled with an extra n' is the wordplay.
'misspelled with' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen this in other clues).
'extra n' becomes 'ne' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'is' anagrammed with 'an' makes 'insa'.
'insa'+'ne'='INSANE'

'when anise' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for insane that I've seen before include "Quite mad" , "Stupid" , "Harebrained" , "Wild < cuckoo < cracked" , "Out of one's mind" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.