The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 11 plus 4 letter word PUNCTUATION MARK
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
P
U
N
C
T
U
A
T
I
O
N
M
A
R
K
More clues leading to the result PUNCTUATION MARK
- Awfully unimportant: a UK leader in crisis — stop perhaps?
- Dash for one, scrambling up mountain track
- US period when a puritan monk cut loose?
- Entering public land, mountain cut off for a period in Wyoming, say?
- Scramble up mountain track, perhaps
- It should clarify meaning, perhaps
- Terribly traumatic on getting into aggressive music for a period in New York, perhaps?
- Little dash, perhaps, that could give spice to man eating fish
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "US period" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case us period = punctuation mark.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.