The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word ORIGINS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
O
R
I
G
I
N
S
More clues leading to the result ORIGINS
- For starters, ‘love tackle’ needs inches added to it
- Sources of old equipment needing insurance
- Sources at home penetrating first of oil rigs
- Starting-points for big wins, leaders having dropped out
- No iris develops without good roots
- First points for big win as all the leaders have quit
- Starts alternative newspaper on spirits
- Engineer elected to cut very large roots
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Sources" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case sources = origins.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 ORIGINS mean?
ORIGINS noun- The beginning of something.
- The source of a river, information, goods, etc.
- The point at which the axes of a coordinate system intersect.
- The proximal end of attachment of a muscle to a bone that will not be moved by the action of that muscle.
- An arbitrary point on Earth's surface, chosen as the zero for a system of coordinates.
- (in the plural) Ancestry.