and/or

[and-awr]

conjunction

1. (used to imply that either or both of the things mentioned may be affected or involved).

   insurance covering fire and/or wind damage.

and/or

conjunction

1. (coordinating) used to join terms when either one or the other or both is indicated

   passports and/or other means of identification

Usage

The combination and/or is used primarily in business and legal writing: All dwellings and/or other structures on the property are included in the contract. Because of these business and legal associations, some object to the use of this combination in general writing, where it occasionally occurs: She spends much of her leisure time entertaining and/or traveling. In such writing, either and or or is usually adequate. If a greater distinction is needed, another phrasing is available: Would you like cream or sugar, or both?

Many people think that and/or is only acceptable in legal and commercial contexts. In other contexts, it is better to use or both: some alcoholics lose their jobs or their driving licences or both (not their jobs and/or their driving licences )

Idioms and Phrases

Both or either of two options. For example, His use of copyrighted material shows that the writer is careless and/or dishonest. This idiom originated in legal terminology of the mid-1800s.

Example Sentences

Or—as has happened multiple times in Fairfax—the legalized plunder of medical facilities and/or collection of federal funds by new owners without paying the hospital’s bills.

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OMB has attempted to hide the unconstitutional and unethical uses of its racial accounting, asserting that “the race and/or ethnicity categories are not to be used as determinants of eligibility for participation in any Federal program.”

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The purchases must have been made on iPhone and/or iPad devices, they add.

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“Our view all along has been that it will take more meaningful declines in mortgage interest rates and/or more meaningful declines in house prices to break the trend sales rate out of what over the past two years has been a notably narrow range,” Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial Corporation, wrote in a note.

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Secondly, the executor of your father’s estate was either asleep on the job and/or had an inexplicable volte-face.

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