Lofty notions of exceptional ladies (6)
I believe the answer is:
ideals
'lofty notions' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to thinking as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'exceptional ladies' is the wordplay.
'exceptional' indicates an anagram (an unusual or exceptional ordering of the letters).
'ladies' is an anagram of 'IDEALS'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ideals that I've seen before include "Ideas regarded as perfect or standards" , "Highest standards, model objectives" , "Ladies (anag.)" , "Moral standards" , "Bad ladies have high principles" .)