American books hotel, bad army accommodation (7)
I believe the answer is:
anthill
'army accommodation' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'american books hotel bad' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'books' becomes 'NT' (New Testament).
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'bad' becomes 'ill' (associated in meaning).
'a'+'nt'+'h'+'ill'='ANTHILL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for anthill that I've seen before include "There's much work to be done here" , "Home to thousands" , "Nest" , "Mound of insects" , "Home for social workers?" .)