Hearsay, strange, associated with us (6)
I believe the answer is:
rumour
'hearsay' is the definition.
(I know that hearsay can be written as rumour)
'strange associated with us' is the wordplay.
'strange' becomes 'rum' (synonyms).
'associated with us' becomes 'our' ('our' is the possessive pronoun for 'us').
'rum'+'our'='RUMOUR'
(Other definitions for rumour that I've seen before include "buzz" , "Hearsay, gossip" , "Unconfirmed gossip" , "What "a little bird" tells you?" , "Information that may well not be true" .)