Whiff of sodium is emerging (7)
I believe the answer is:
nascent
'is emerging' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'whiff of sodium' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'whiff' could be 'scent' (I've seen this before) and 'scent' is present in the answer.
'sodium' could be 'na' (Na is the chemical symbol for sodium) and 'na' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nascent that I've seen before include "awakening" , "Newly-formed" , "Incipient" , "not yet mature" , "Starting existence" .)