Spot on manuscript appears (5)
I believe the answer is:
seems
'appears' is the definition.
('seem' can be a synonym of 'appear')
'spot on manuscript' is the wordplay.
'spot' becomes 'see' (I've seen this before).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'manuscript' becomes 'ms' (abbreviation for manuscript).
'see'+'ms'='SEEMS'
(Other definitions for seems that I've seen before include "Appears, looks" , "Gives a certain impression" .)