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If I am looking for one or more of A/B/C, but nothing else, and I want to tell that to somebody, do I say "I am only looking for A, B, and C" or "I am only looking for A, B, or C"?

An example with some context:

I would like some definitive information about frumblebumps. I am only looking for articles, links, [and | or] first-hand accounts.

Does the "and" version imply that I am looking for all three and will not accept a partial set? Does the "or" version imply an exclusive or?

If "and" is the appropriate word, then how do I differentiate that from the case where I am looking for all three items as a set? If "or" is the appropriate word, then how do I differentiate that from the case where I am looking for exactly one of the items?

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  • possible duplicate of Alternatives to "and/or"?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 16:33
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    I didn't "imply" anything, but since you're specifically asking me, I'll just say that usually you can't reliably disambiguate simply by juggling and's and or's. I don't even understand what it might mean to be only looking for "things" which are simultaneously an "article, a link, and a first-hand account". For some more credible criteria, you could say you want anything that matches any of the specifications, or only things that match all the specifications.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 19:06
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    Based on the criteria that you've listed above, if you're looking for one or more of A/B/C then you'd correctly say "or". I'm basing this on my programmatic knowledge, in which everything needs to be literal. "And" would imply that you were looking for all 3, and that all 3 would need to be present for the argument to be considered true. "Or" would imply that any combination of the 3 would suffice the argument, and would be true if at least one or more of A/B/C was present.
    – SQLSavant
    Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 21:03
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    I think you're trying to treat a human language too much like a computer programming language. Neither conjunction unambiguously implies either case; if the intended meaning isn't clear from the context, then you need to make it clear in some other way.
    – Neil Coffey
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 16:45
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    In writing patent claims this comes up all the time. We would write "where the widget is comprised of at least one material chosen from the list A, B, and C".
    – George White
    Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 3:29

1 Answer 1

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I think the meaning you want to express is best conveyed by:

I am only looking for A's, B's, and C's

Neither "I am only looking for A, B, and C" nor "I am only looking for A, B, or C" convey the possibility of multiple occurances.

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    Thanks. What if I do want to be explicit about those cases? Would I use "I am looking for all of A, B, and C" / "I am looking for exactly one of A, B, or C"? (The "and" case seems awkward.)
    – Jason C
    Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 3:52
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    In the first case, I would say "I am looking for all of the A's, B's and C's". I can't pinpoint what it is, but although the meaning of the second sentence sounds right, when I read it, somehow, it feels clunky.
    – Nico
    Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 7:12
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    Hm, "I am looking for all of the A's, B's, and C's" reads to me like "I am looking for *every single thing* that is an A, a B, or a C" - I think what I actually meant was "I am looking for anything that is an A, a B, and also a C". I had no idea this had so many other possibilities. "I am looking for anything that is an article, a link, and a first-hand account" as opposed to "I am looking for all of the articles, links, and first-hand accounts".
    – Jason C
    Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 7:22

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