The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word ARÊTE
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
A
R
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T
E
More clues leading to the result ARÊTE
- Feature of mountain visible in fair weather off and on
- Veteran turning to cover mountain ridge
- Ridge discovered by veteran returning after shelling
- Craggy height, one with blunt and notched tip you’ll find us avoiding
- The area’s rocky – has this ridge possibly
- Raised feature in bare terrain
- Some athlete raced up mountain ridge
- Ridge etc – find what’s missing on the way back
- Ridge, part one’s cut off in etc, coming from behind
- Live on the soulless and rocky edge
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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.
What does ARÊTE mean?
ARÊTE noun- (Classical philosophy) Virtue, excellence.
- (Classical philosophy) The proper state or condition for a human.
- A very thin ridge of rock.