Subject almost ripe then? (5)
I believe the answer is:
topic
'subject almost ripe then?' is the definition.
'topic' can be an answer for 'subject' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'almost ripe then?' bit.
'subject almost' is the wordplay.
'subject' becomes 'topick' (I've seen this before).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'topick' with its last letter removed is 'TOPIC'.
(Other definitions for topic that I've seen before include "Talking point" , "Content of argument" , "Theme of discourse" , "Subject (of, eg, speech)" , "Theme (of, eg, a talk)" .)