Utter professional has word with civil engineer (9)
I believe the answer is:
pronounce
'utter' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'professional has word with civil engineer' is the wordplay.
'professional' becomes 'pro' (synonyms).
'has' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'word' becomes 'noun' (noun is a kind of word).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'civil engineer' becomes 'ce'.
'pro'+'noun'+'ce'='PRONOUNCE'
(Other definitions for pronounce that I've seen before include "make a declaration" , "Make the sound of (word)" , "say" , "Articulate clearly" , "Enunciate" .)