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Mutually Exclusive

A country club that only allows one of each pair of people who show up at the door into the dance. Which would be both frustrating and cool depending on which half you are, but instead, mutually exclusive events are events that cannot happen at the same time. A football team can’t simultaneously win and lose the same game. (No, that’s not what a tie is.) It can’t be raining and not raining at the beach at the same time. You can’t be married and single and the same time. You can’t be not learning and on Shmoop at the same time. See what we did there?

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)