Study printed work and background (7)
I believe the answer is:
context
'background' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'study printed work' is the wordplay.
'study' becomes 'con' (con can informally mean to study).
'printed work' becomes 'text' (printed text).
'con'+'text'='CONTEXT'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for context that I've seen before include "Words surrounding a word or phrase that may fix its true meaning" , "Surrounding circumstances" , "Surrounding setting" , "what they relate to" , "Frame of reference" .)