They're read at times (7)
I believe the answer is:
minutes
'times' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both human attributes as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'they're read at' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'at' could be 'in' and 'in' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'mutes' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for minutes that I've seen before include "Record of a meeting" , "Written account of a meeting" , "Record of a meeting's decisions" , "summary" , "Records" .)