The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 6 letter word IN THEORY
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
I
N
T
H
E
O
R
Y
More clues leading to the result IN THEORY
- On paper the irony’s wasted
- Iron they forged according to principle
- Elected Conservative must ring her right away on paper
- Notionally, during Saturnalia, Government’s opted out
- At work, that man’s enthralled by right- winger on paper
- Hypothetical cipher running through popular article on line
- The irony that’s funny on paper
Buddy explains!
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.