Makes miserable secretary popular at Society (5)
I believe the answer is:
pains
'makes' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to thinking as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'miserable secretary popular at society' is the wordplay.
'miserable secretary' becomes 'pa' (I've seen this in other clues. I am not sure about the 'miserable' bit.**).
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'at' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'society' becomes 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations).
'pa'+'in'+'s'='PAINS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pains that I've seen before include "effort" , "Labour" , "Nice bakery's production" , "Unpleasant feelings" , "Aches" .)