Melodic fragment wears thin for the audience (6)
I believe the answer is:
phrase
'melodic fragment' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'wears thin for the audience' is the wordplay.
'wears thin' becomes 'frays'.
'for the audience' shows a homophone (sound like) (how an audience might hear it).
'frays' sounds like 'PHRASE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for phrase that I've seen before include "Group of words within a sentence" , "Put into words" , "Present" , "Sherpa (anag)" , "Seraph (anag.)" .)