Strange soul in lilac top including one misleading image (7,8)
I believe the answer is:
optical illusion
'misleading image' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'strange soul in lilac top including one' is the wordplay.
'strange' indicates anagramming the letters.
'including' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'soul'+'in'+'lilac'+'top'='soulinlilactop'
'soulinlilactop' is an anagram of 'opticalllusion'.
'opticalllusion' enclosing 'i' is 'OPTICAL ILLUSION'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for optical illusion that I've seen before include "outwardly deceptive" , "Something deceiving the eye" , "It's not what it seems!" , "One can't really see it" , "Mirage" .)