The short temper of people in general (5)
I believe the answer is:
their
'people in general' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'the short temper' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'temper' becomes 'ire' (both can mean anger or rage).
'ire' with its final letter taken off is 'ir'.
'the'+'ir'='THEIR'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for their that I've seen before include "Those people's" , "Belonging to him (perhaps wrongly)" , "Relating to them" , "Some would say his (or her)" , "belonging to an individual" .)