Trade ad is out to catch people ultimately, offering essential items? (10)
I believe the answer is:
desiderata
'essential items?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'trade ad is out to catch people ultimately' is the wordplay.
'out' indicates an anagram (out can mean wrong or inaccurate).
'to catch' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ultimately' says to take the final letters.
The final letter of 'people' is 'e'.
'trade'+'ad'+'is'='tradeadis'
'tradeadis' with letters rearranged gives 'desidrata'.
'desidrata' enclosing 'e' is 'DESIDERATA'.
'offering' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for desiderata that I've seen before include "list of wants" , "Wanted things" , "what are needed" , "much-needed items" .)