Welshman of words granted degrees (6)
I believe the answer is:
thomas
'welshman' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'of words granted degrees' is the wordplay.
'of words' becomes 'tho' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'granted' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'degrees' becomes 'MAs' (MA is an example).
'tho'+'mas'='THOMAS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for thomas that I've seen before include "One of the Twelve Apostles" , "steam engine" , "- the Rhymer, C 13 Scots poet" , "man" , "He needs convincing" .)