Woman has one illuminated by armed forces (8)
I believe the answer is:
military
'armed forces' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'woman has one illuminated' is the wordplay.
'woman' becomes 'mary' (woman's name).
'has' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'illuminated' becomes 'lit' (synonyms).
'i'+'lit'='ilit'
'mary' enclosing 'ilit' is 'MILITARY'.
'by' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for military that I've seen before include "Relating to the army" , "soldierly" , "Of soldiers and warfare" , "Related to soldiering" , "Relating to armed forces" .)