The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 plus 1 plus 9 letter word ICONIFIED > CDEFIIINO
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
I
C
O
N
I
F
I
E
D
>
C
D
E
F
I
I
I
N
O
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.