To interpret a grading expression accurately, ask who used it, in which work, for which report, and in what context. Al-Tirmidhi's general or special usage, like that of other hadith critics, may differ in places from later classroom definitions.
The marker "ʿindana" (in our usage) can signal a critic's particular technical convention. Erasing that attribution and treating it as one unanimously shared definition risks error. Likewise, *gharib* does not automatically indicate a weak narrator; it can simply identify relative singularity.
Order of investigation: establish the original wording, the critic's terminology, the transmission routes and defects, and only then the report's cumulative grade.
Ibn Hajar draws particular attention to al-Tirmidhi’s qualification «عِنْدَنَا» (“according to us”). Al-Tirmidhi assigns the definition to his own technical usage rather than presenting it as a single definition agreed upon by all hadith specialists. Al-Khattabi, by contrast, attributed his explanation more broadly to hadith scholars. The difference in attribution matters when interpreting al-Tirmidhi’s unqualified and compound verdicts.