Can you use and/or in formal writing?

Can you use and/or in formal writing?

Please do not use “and/or” in either formal or informal writing. In common English, the “or” is a “non-exclusive or” which means “either A or B, or A and B”. When I say “I can have a banana OR I can have coffee” then I am also OK with having both. Having a banana does not prevent me from having coffee.

Is there a word for and or?

In regular English, there’s no single word for that. Or already usually means ‘and or or’ but people just write and/or when they want to be super clear that acceptable outcomes include {A, B, AB}. Computer scientists do use more specific logical operators: AND is only true for {AB}.

What does and/or mean legally?

According to the legal commentators, when used together with and, the word or usually includes and and the and/or phrase means either or both of. Inclusion of the / would not have corrected any error, ambiguity or confusion already inherent in the use of the and or conjunctive-disjunctive.