plausibly.

In a way that appears reasonably credible or consistent with the available circumstances.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• plausibly explain
• plausibly account for

On the page

The mechanism could plausibly explain the pattern but had not been independently tested.

The witness plausibly accounted for the delay without settling the remaining factual questions.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Invariable adverb; use more or most only where natural. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: evidence assessment, qualification, argument critique, assumption analysis. Disciplines: argumentation, logic, research interpretation, formal writing. Commonness: moderately common.