Terms in defeat man accepts (8)
I believe the answer is:
glossary
'terms' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'defeat man accepts' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'defeat' could be 'loss' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'loss' is found within the answer.
'man' could be 'gary' and 'gary' is located in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for glossary that I've seen before include "Specialised dictionary" , "Explanatory list of words" , "A grossly distorted kind of word list" , "Index of terms" , "A grossly distorted list of special words and definitions" .)