The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word SENTIENCE
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More clues leading to the result SENTIENCE
- Time to hide one’s feelings?
- Feeling life, say, or time is overwhelming one
- Ability to understand what judge pronounces about one
- Condemn overwhelming ego, showing feeling
- One entering judgement shows awareness
- Feeling stretch, one splits
- One in time showing awareness
- Punishment limiting one’s feeling
- Awareness of life, for example, when one is inside
- A few words go to make one judge’s verdict
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Ability to understand" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case ability to understand = sentience.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.