Parts of speech display some intelligence about North (5)
I believe the answer is:
nouns
'parts of speech' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'intelligence about north' is the wordplay.
'intelligence' becomes 'nous' (I've seen this before).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'nous' placed around 'n' is 'NOUNS'.
'display some' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nouns that I've seen before include "Words referring to people, places or things" , "Naming words" , "They refer to people, places and things" , "Identifying words" , "They can be used to refer to persons, places or things" .)