Spot a person noted for intelligence (4)
I believe the answer is:
espy
'spot' is the definition.
(I know that spot can be written as espy)
'a person noted for intelligence' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'person' could be 'spy' (spy is a kind of person) and 'spy' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for espy that I've seen before include "Observe, notice" , "Discern" , "Catch sight of (poetic)" , "Detect" , "Catch a glimpse of" .)