The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 2 plus 3 letter word ONE BY ONE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
O
N
E
B
Y
O
N
E
More clues leading to the result ONE BY ONE
- To get around that, I live separately
- 11 in a file
- Individually taking drugs, live to accept that
- Eleven singly
- How eleven may appear individually?
- Sequence of individual’s autobiography?
- Eleven taken singly
- When there’s no empty hive, no honeybee goes off individually
- United by nothing, leaders of nation exist individually
- 11 separately?
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "in a file" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case in a file = one by one.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.