100 Hedging Phrases and When to Use Them

No.	Item	Definition
1.	all things considered	overall judgment with caution
2.	as a rule	usually true, with exceptions
3.	as far as I know	limits claim to knowledge
4.	as I see it	marks a personal viewpoint
5.	as it were	signals loose or figurative wording
6.	at first glance	initial impression only
7.	at least partly	true to some degree
8.	at times	sometimes, not always
9.	broadly speaking	general statement, not exact
10.	by and large	generally true overall
11.	can be	allows possibility, not certainty
12.	chances are	probably the case
13.	correct me if I’m wrong	invites correction politely
14.	could be	suggests one possible explanation
15.	could well	indicates a real possibility
16.	for now	true at present only
17.	for the most part	mostly true, not entirely
18.	from my perspective	limits claim to viewpoint
19.	from what I can tell	limits claim to available evidence
20.	generally speaking	broad claim with exceptions
21.	give or take	allows small variation
22.	I am inclined to think	formal tentative opinion
23.	I believe	signals belief, not certainty
24.	I could be wrong	openly admits possible error
25.	I feel	frames it as personal view
26.	I guess	shows uncertainty or tentativeness
27.	I imagine	offers a tentative assumption
28.	I might be wrong	admits weaker confidence
29.	I suppose	makes a claim less direct
30.	I suspect	suggests a likely possibility
31.	I tend to think	softened recurring opinion
32.	I think	softens a personal opinion
33.	I would say	gives a cautious judgment
34.	if I’m not mistaken	polite uncertainty marker
35.	in a way	partly true in one sense
36.	in some ways	true in certain respects
37.	it appears	suggests something looks true
38.	it is hard to say	admits uncertainty explicitly
39.	it is likely that	shows probability, not certainty
40.	it is not clear that	signals uncertainty about truth
41.	it is possible that	states possibility directly
42.	it is unlikely that	shows low probability
43.	it seems	presents an apparent impression
44.	it’s difficult to know	marks uncertainty from limited knowledge
45.	it’s hard to tell	says evidence is unclear
46.	kind of	softens or approximates meaning
47.	looks to me like	informal tentative impression
48.	may be	shows possibility or uncertainty
49.	may well	suggests strong possibility
50.	might be	shows weaker possibility
51.	might well	suggests plausible likelihood
52.	more likely than not	probably true overall
53.	more often than not	usually, though not always
54.	more or less	means approximately or loosely
55.	my impression is	states a tentative impression
56.	my sense is	gives a personal impression
57.	not always	allows exceptions
58.	not completely	indicates partial truth only
59.	not entirely	partly but not fully
60.	not especially	softens a negative assessment
61.	not exactly	softens a correction
62.	not necessarily	rejects certainty or universality
63.	not particularly	limits degree politely
64.	not quite	slightly less than stated
65.	not really	softens disagreement or denial
66.	not strictly	qualifies exactness
67.	odds are	likely to be true
68.	on the whole	overall but not completely
69.	one could say	offers a cautious wording
70.	or so	approximately that amount
71.	pretty much	almost or largely
72.	seems to me	personal impression, not certainty
73.	so to speak	marks approximate expression
74.	somewhere around	very approximate amount
75.	sort of	makes wording less exact
76.	strictly speaking	narrows claim to exact sense
77.	tends to	describes a common pattern
78.	there could be	one possible existence claim
79.	there may be	suggests possible existence
80.	there might be	weaker possibility of existence
81.	there’s a chance	indicates possibility exists
82.	to a certain extent	true within limits
83.	to a degree	true to some extent
84.	to me	marks personal perception
85.	to my knowledge	states knowledge limit formally
86.	to some extent	limits the strength somewhat
87.	to the best of my knowledge	careful limit on certainty
88.	under certain conditions	only in some situations
89.	unless I’m mistaken	allows possible error
90.	up to a point	true only within limits
91.	very likely	highly probable
92.	with luck	if things go favorably
93.	would appear	makes conclusion more cautious
94.	would seem	softens an apparent conclusion
95.	would tend to	would generally be likely to
96.	would usually	would in most cases
97.	yet to be seen	still uncertain
98.	you might say	offers a tentative description
99.	you never know	the outcome is uncertain
100.	your guess is as good	I do not know either