Crossword Genius

The character that put the “To Rent” sign outside? (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

letter

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'the character' is the definition.
(letter is a kind of character)

'put the to rent sign outside?' is the wordplay.
'put' indicates putting letters inside.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'to rent' becomes 'let' ('let' can be a synonym of 'rent').
'sign outside?' becomes 'er' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't' going into 'let' is 'lett'.
'lett'+'er'='LETTER'

'that' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for letter that I've seen before include "Character of the alphabet" , "Eg, A" , "Unit of alphabet" , "It's one of twenty-six" , "Character - landlord - epistle" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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