The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 5 plus 5 letter word THE MERRY WIDOW
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
H
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M
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More clues leading to the result THE MERRY WIDOW
- Operetta tune “Romeo, Romeo”, unknown text overleaf?
- Operetta article somehow worried my wife
- I'd worry badly about wife following subject matter in this operetta
- They worried about involving head of music with operetta
- Who’d rewrite my revised 10?
- I’d worry after confusing cracking tune with 14
- Why row merited after a lot of work producing operetta
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Operetta" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case operetta = the merry widow.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.