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Spitting image of King John at the top, the greatest King on earth (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lookalike

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'spitting image' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'king john at the top the greatest king on earth' is the wordplay.
'king' becomes 'K' (abbreviation for king in chess).
'john' becomes 'loo' (both can mean a toilet).
'at the top' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go above others).
'the greatest' becomes 'Ali' (Muhammad Ali was known as the Greatest).
'king on earth' becomes 'ke' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'k' after 'loo' is 'look'.
'look'+'ali'+'ke'='LOOKALIKE'

'of' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lookalike that I've seen before include "Double" , "twin?" , "Copy" , "Doppelganger" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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