Native speaker, and my understanding of ‘plausible’ agrees 100% with Kaj. It’s about the lowest possible assessment you can give, while still admitting that it is a possible hypothesis. I believe this is because under normal circumstances you would use literally any other word to give a more charitable assessment, if you wanted. E.g. you could say it is ‘likely’ (but you didn’t), or you could say it is ‘valid’ (which in non-technical English tends to connote some sort of likelihood), etc.
If I come at you with some argument or theory, and you reply “well, I guess that’s plausible” I take the hint that you are actually ending the conversation out of disinterest. You are conceding that it is technically plausible, maybe, but you don’t think it is likely nor even worthy enough to take your time debating.
Native speaker, and my understanding of ‘plausible’ agrees 100% with Kaj. It’s about the lowest possible assessment you can give, while still admitting that it is a possible hypothesis. I believe this is because under normal circumstances you would use literally any other word to give a more charitable assessment, if you wanted. E.g. you could say it is ‘likely’ (but you didn’t), or you could say it is ‘valid’ (which in non-technical English tends to connote some sort of likelihood), etc.
If I come at you with some argument or theory, and you reply “well, I guess that’s plausible” I take the hint that you are actually ending the conversation out of disinterest. You are conceding that it is technically plausible, maybe, but you don’t think it is likely nor even worthy enough to take your time debating.