Papers covering union conference’s opening often misrepresented it, on reflection (8)
I believe the answer is:
confetti
'papers covering union' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'conference's opening often misrepresented it on reflection' is the wordplay.
'opening' says to take the initial letters.
'misrepresented' indicates anagramming the letters.
'on reflection' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
The initial letter of 'conferences' is 'c'.
'it' reversed gives 'ti'.
'often' anagrammed gives 'onfet'.
'c'+'onfet'+'ti'='CONFETTI'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for confetti that I've seen before include "Wedding paper scraps" , "Celebratory paper at wedding" , "Paper pieces thrown at wedding" , "Celebratory scraps of coloured paper thrown at weddings" , "Tiny bits of celebratory coloured paper" .)