Spooks die in the clutches of silent spiritualist (6)
I believe the answer is:
medium
'spiritualist' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'spooks die in the clutches of silent' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'die' is 'edi' which is within the answer.
'silent' could be 'mum' (synonyms) and 'mum' is present in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for medium that I've seen before include "Middle course for spiritualists" , "Size between large and small" , "Average; clairvoyant" , "Average sort of spiritualist" , "The conductor of a siance" .)