“Thousand moons” — direction is awe-inspiring (9)
I believe the answer is:
grandiose
'awe-inspiring' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'thousand moons direction' is the wordplay.
'thousand' becomes 'grand' (synonyms).
'moons' becomes 'ios' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'direction' becomes 'e' (E is an example).
'grand'+'ios'+'e'='GRANDIOSE'
'is' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grandiose that I've seen before include "Bombastic" , "Impressive, magnificent" , "I grade son as affectedly splendid" , "Planned on a magnificent scale" , "Ambitious" .)