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Noted river barrier near Amsterdam (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

edam

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'noted river' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.

'barrier near amsterdam' is the wordplay.
'barrier' becomes 'dam' (dam is a kind of barrier).
'near' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'amsterdam' becomes 'e' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dam' put after 'e' is 'EDAM'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for edam that I've seen before include "Hard Dutch cheese" , "town in Holland" , "Dutch food" , "Danish cheese" , "Made (anag) - Dutch cheese" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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