Crossword Genius

Perception of a conflict with English over loch (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

awareness

'perception' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'a conflict with english over loch' is the wordplay.
'conflict' becomes 'war' (war is a kind of conflict).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'over' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go over others).
'loch' becomes 'ness' (Loch Ness in Scotland).
'a'+'war'+'e'+'ness'='AWARENESS'

'of' is the link.

(Other definitions for awareness that I've seen before include "Consciousness, sentience" , "Knowing" , "Fact of consciousness" , "Consciousness, knowingness" , "understanding" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.