The Queen Mother entered hot springs (7)

I believe the answer is:

thermae

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'hot springs' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'the queen mother entered' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'ER' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'mother' becomes 'ma' (Ma is another word for mother or mum).
'entered' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'er'+'ma'='erma'
'the' enclosing 'erma' is 'THERMAE'.

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