Below, three passages I found via an online search:

• “Days of Darkness is arguably Arcand’s most depressing film.”
• “John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty… is arguably the most important statement of liberal political philosophy of the last two centuries.”
• “Arguably the best value digital camera. A review by…”

The word arguably is routinely misused and overused. But the usage and style guides I consulted don’t say much about it. More than 20 years ago, language guru William Safire devoted a column to the word, but he didn’t disapprove of its use, which even then some of his readers described as a “craze.”

One problem is that the meaning is ambiguous. As an adjective, arguable is negative; it means debatable, open to doubt or question. Yet when people use arguably as an adverb, the intended sense is often positive. For example, the headline of an ad for an expensive foreign automobile boasted, “Arguably the most comfortable car in existence today.”

Furthermore, some use arguably as a qualifier that betrays uncertainty or a lack of confidence. It’s a confession that the writer or speaker doesn’t really know for sure. As one online commentator shrewdly observed, saying “X is arguably the best” absolves the writer of responsibility. Instead of taking the firm position that X really is the best, he or she cops out by deferring to a hypothetical person who might disagree.

For all these reasons, I recommend that you eschew arguably. Aside from the ambiguity and the wimpiness factor, it’s a “vogue word” that borders on cliche. Where possible, express your views with conviction and without qualifications. But if a qualifier is unavoidable, try these alternatives: perhaps, possibly, probably.

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book forthcoming from AWAI, that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]

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