Crossword Genius

My son, crazy about Big Apple either way? It means the same (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

synonym

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'same' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'my son crazy about big apple' is the wordplay.
'crazy' indicates an anagram.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'big apple' becomes 'ny' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'my'+'son'='myson'
'myson' with letters rearranged gives 'synom'.
'synom' placed around 'ny' is 'SYNONYM'.

'either way? it means the' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for synonym that I've seen before include "Word with meaning similar to that of another" , "Word that can be exchanged for another" , "Quick crossword clue" , "Substitute brought in for a term" , "My sonny (anag)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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