Plaudit is attempted, endless, but restrained (7)
I believe the answer is:
tribute
'plaudit' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'attempted endless but restrained' is the wordplay.
'attempted' becomes 'tried' ('try' can be a synonym of 'attempt').
'endless' means to remove the last letter.
'restrained' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are restrained by others).
'tried' with its last letter taken off is 'trie'.
'trie' placed around 'but' is 'TRIBUTE'.
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tribute that I've seen before include "Expression of praise" , "Payment to a subjugator" , "Nice words" , "expression of approval" , "Accolade" .)