For male, I ignited one in front of a body of citizen soldiers (7)
I believe the answer is:
militia
'a body of citizen soldiers' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'for male i ignited one in front' is the wordplay.
'for male' becomes 'mi' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'i' becomes 'a'.
'ignited' becomes 'lit' (synonyms).
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'in front' says to put letters next to each other.
'lit'+'i'='liti'
'a' after 'liti' is 'litia'.
'mi'+'litia'='MILITIA'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for militia that I've seen before include "Fighting force raised from the civil population" , "Civilian army force" , "Fighting force of civilians" , "Body of citizen soldiers" , "Body of civilian soldiers" .)