Sent back quote with egg mass and height being speculative (9)
I believe the answer is:
theoretic
'speculative' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'sent back quote with egg mass and height' is the wordplay.
'sent back' says the letters should be written backwards.
'quote with' becomes 'cite' (synonyms. I am not sure about the 'with' bit.).
'egg mass' becomes 'roe' (I've seen this in another clue).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'height' becomes 'ht' (abbreviation).
'cite'+'roe'+'ht'='citeroeht'
'citeroeht' reversed gives 'THEORETIC'.
'being' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for theoretic that I've seen before include "purely speculative" , "Not practical" , "impractical" .)