[plib]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

The nuances in English aren't any more complicated than the nuances in the language of any other developed country. Here's a link to an interesting Geoff Nunberg article:

http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/payack.html

An opinion ( assessment, assumption, attitude, conception, conclusion, conjecture, estimate, estimation, eye*, fancy, feeling, guess, hypothesis, idea, imagining, impression, inclination, inference, judgment, mind, notion, persuasion, point of view, postulate, presumption, presupposition, reaction, say-so, sentiment, slant, speculation, supposition, surmise, suspicion, take*, theorem, theory, thesis, think*, thought, view, viewpoint) piece based on his own belief ( acceptance, admission, assent, assumption, assurance, avowal, axiom, certainty, conclusion, confidence, conjecture, conviction, credence, credit, deduction, divination, expectation, faith, fancy, feeling, guess, hope, hypothesis, idea, impression, intuition, judgment, knowledge, mind, mindset, notion, opinion, persuasion, position, postulation, presumption, presupposition, profession, reliance, supposition, surmise, suspicion, theorem, theory, thesis, thinking, trust, understanding, view) and conjecture (conclusion, fancy, guess, guesstimate, guesswork, hunch, hypothesis, inference, notion, opinion, perhaps, presumption, shot in the dark, sneaking suspicion, stab in the dark, supposition, surmise, theorizing, theory) which comes to no firm conclusion ( agreement, conviction, corollary, deduction, determination, illation, inference, opinion, ratiocination, resolution, resolve, sequitur, settlement, verdict).

(Cheat sheet courtesy of FF and thesaurus.com)