Puzzle with tangled ropes (5)
I believe the answer is:
poser
'puzzle' is the definition.
(poser can mean a mystery or puzzle)
'tangled ropes' is the wordplay.
'tangled' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ropes' is an anagram of 'POSER'.
'with' is the link.
(Other definitions for poser that I've seen before include "Spore raises a difficult question" , "Tricky problem" , "Brain-teaser" , "What's difficult" , "Problem to be solved" .)