Almost begin party with married name (7)
I believe the answer is:
stardom
'married name' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both states of affairs as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'almost begin party with' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'begin' becomes 'start' (synonyms).
'party with' becomes 'dom' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'start' with its final letter taken off is 'star'.
'star'+'dom'='STARDOM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stardom that I've seen before include "Great fame" , "Status of a top actor" , "Great celebrity" , "Celebrity status" , "(The prestige of) celebrity" .)