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I have read the existing questions around this matter:

It seems that whether "between" is inclusive or exclusive may depend on context and there is always some ambiguity about it unless this is specified explicitly.

I want to know if there is an alternative to the word "between" that can communicate without ambiguity that we mean "inclusive".

Example usages of this word (represented with blank below) could be:

  • Add numbers _____ 10 and 20.
  • Pick a number _____ 10 and 20.
  • Select all items _____ the 10th item and the 20th item.

If there is no such word, then "No" could be an answer to this question.

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    I would always assume from is inclusive. Nobody asked to count "from 1 to 10" would skip 1 or 10. You did link to a question that mentions from - you're not happy with that option?
    – nnnnnn
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 9:44
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    Your second example for "Between" uses a completely different word than the "between" you think you are asking about. The fact that the two words are spelled identically, and are used in similar contexts, just confuses the matter. "Between A and B" says nothing about the range from A to B, it is an enforced choice: Pick A or Pick B, not both.
    – PcMan
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 17:13

2 Answers 2

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American English has the inclusive "through", which is related to throughout and thorough(ly). British English does not have this and an adjective and adverb must be used - usually inclusive(ly))

OED: through

9.b. Chiefly North American. Up to (a number, date, or other item in an ordered sequence) inclusively; up to the end of; up to and including. Cf. inclusive adv.

1798 T. Holcroft Diary 4 Aug. in Memoirs (1816) III. 31 Continued the opera through scene 9, Act 3.

1971 Physics Bull. Dec. 738/1 In the review copy pages 1469 through 1472 are already loose which does not say too much for the quality of the binding.

2010 August (Georgia) Chron. (Nexis) 2 May 1 The beauty shop is open for styling Thursday through Saturday.

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    In British English "from X to Y" would usually be taken as inclusive. Explicitly stating "inclusively, "up to and including" etc. may be needed if there's a reason to think otherwise, or to be absolutely unambiguous, but not normally
    – Chris H
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 11:38
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No it is.

Note on conflicting terminology

The terms segment and interval have been employed in the literature in two essentially opposite ways, resulting in ambiguity when these terms are used. The Encyclopedia of Mathematics[3] defines interval (without a qualifier) to exclude both endpoints (i.e., open interval) and segment to include both endpoints (i.e., closed interval), while Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis[4] calls sets of the form [a, b] intervals and sets of the form (a, b) segments throughout. These terms tend to appear in older works; modern texts increasingly favor the term interval (qualified by open, closed, or half-open), regardless of whether endpoints are included.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(mathematics)

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