State in short empty, might you say? (7)
I believe the answer is:
montana
'you say?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'state in short empty' is the wordplay.
'state' becomes 'tan' (tan is a kind of state).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'short empty' becomes 'mona' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tan' going inside 'mona' is 'MONTANA'.
'might' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for montana that I've seen before include "One US state ..." , "Nato man (anag) - US state" , "North-western state bordering Canada" , "The "Big Sky State"" , "State N. of Wyoming" .)