Understood tense account given by Italian (5)
I believe the answer is:
tacit
'understood' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tense account given by italian' is the wordplay.
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'account' becomes 'ac'.
'given' says to put letters next to each other.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'italian' becomes 'it'.
't'+'ac'+'it'='TACIT'
(Other definitions for tacit that I've seen before include "Attic? (anag)" , "Implied or understood, not put into words" , "Implied, unstated" , "Aircraft engine casing" , "Not said though understood" .)