Clarify 'Theory' to Fix Science Debates

The word 'theory' is commonly used in ordinary speech to mean 'a guess,' but in science it denotes a large, tested framework that explains and predicts. Making this distinction explicit in reporting, education, and political argument reduces a common rhetorical dodge — calling well‑established science 'just a theory' — and raises public understanding of scientific certainty and uncertainty. — If communicators and reporters habitually mark the technical status of scientific claims, public debates over policies that rely on science (climate, vaccines, evolution in curricula) will be less prone to rhetorical dismissal and misinformation.