Questionable exchange with little sister was a catastrophe (8)
I believe the answer is:
disaster
'catastrophe' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'questionable exchange with little sister was a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'was' could be 'is' (being is a kind of being) and 'is' is located in the answer.
'a' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for disaster that I've seen before include "Catastrophe, tragedy" , "complete failure" , "Calamity, sudden great misfortune" , "Star dies (anag)" , "Tragedy of asterids" .)