Reportedly rough passage (6)
I believe the answer is:
course
'passage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'reportedly rough' is the wordplay.
'reportedly' shows a homophone (sound like).
'rough' becomes 'coarse' ('coarse' is associated in meaning with 'rough').
'coarse' sounds like 'COURSE'.
(Other definitions for course that I've seen before include "Source (anag.)" , "fish, possibly" , "Route for Crusoe" , "Pursue - career - run - series of lectures" , "way" .)