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Head of harems has various ladies in compounds (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

halides

'compounds' is the definition.
(halide is a kind of compound)

'head of harems has various ladies' is the wordplay.
'head of' indicates taking the first letters.
'has' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'various' indicates anagramming the letters.
The initial letter of 'harems' is 'h'.
'ladies' anagrammed gives 'alides'.
'h'+'alides'='HALIDES'

'in' acts as a link.

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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