Vital I connect in conjunction (8)

I believe the answer is:

animated

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'vital' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'i connect in conjunction' is the wordplay.
'connect' becomes 'mate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'conjunction' becomes 'and' ('and' is a conjunction).
'i'+'mate'='imate'
'imate' inserted inside 'and' is 'ANIMATED'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for animated that I've seen before include "Mandate I confer on the lively" , "put in spirit" , "Interesting and lively - as a cartoon film is" , "Enlivened (like a cartoon film)" , "Vibrant" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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