Mutually exclusive

In logic, two mutually exclusive propositions are propositions that logically cannot both be true. To say that more than two propositions are mutually exclusive may, depending on context mean that no two of them can both be true, or only that they cannot all be true. The term pairwise mutually exclusive always means no two of them can both be true.

Related Topics:
Logic - Logically cannot

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In probability theory, events E1, E2, ..., En are said to be mutually exclusive if the occurrence of any one them automatically implies the non-occurrence of the remaining n − 1 events. In other words, two mutually exclusive events cannot both occur.

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In short, mutual exclusivity implies that at most one of the events must occur. Compare this to the concept of being collectively exhaustive, which means that at least one of the events must occur.

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