Learn English – Formal “More or less”

Oxford Dictionaries Online has two definitions for clunky. They are:

solid, heavy and old-fashioned

and

making a clunking sound

These two are clearly quite different from the following definitions of clumsy, from the same dictionary:

awkward in movement or in handling things

done awkwardly or without skill

difficult to handle or use; unwieldy

lacking social skills; tactless

On the broader question of synonyms, even where two words do seem to have more or less identical meanings, they will often be used in different contexts.

Could you try expecting or anticipating?

But in seriousness, in hopes that doesn't strike me as very colloquial, though it would seem in the context presented in this question that want of something to happen might be considered more non-scientific than something that has reason or justification to be correct.

In context:

To overcome this crucial issue, a popular solution has been used where a task is assigned to many workers and the results for this task are aggregated expecting that the aggregated result is actually the correct one.

(I thought "that" was allowed to be optional, but since "the aggregated result is actually the correct one." is a complete sentence, "that" is a conjunction and necessary.)