Most beautiful woman in Asia perhaps becomes an actress (8)
I believe the answer is:
isabella
'an actress' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'most beautiful woman in asia perhaps' is the wordplay.
'most' means to remove the last letter.
'beautiful woman' becomes 'belle' (I've seen this before).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'perhaps' indicates anagramming the letters.
'belle' with its final letter taken off is 'bell'.
'asia' anagrammed gives 'isaa'.
'bell' inserted into 'isaa' is 'ISABELLA'.
'becomes' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for isabella that I've seen before include "Wife of Ferdinand V" , "Wife of Ferdinand II of Aragon" , "Sailable Spanish queen who sponsored Columbus" , "sludgy colour" , "Bails Lea out for the name" .)