Page "If and only if" Paragraph 4

In that it is biconditional, the connective can be likened to the standard material conditional (" only if ", equal to " if ... then ") combined with its reverse (" if "); hence the name.

The result is that the truth of either one of the connected statements requires the truth of the other, i. e., either both statements are true, or both are false.

It is controversial whether the connective thus defined is properly rendered by the English " if and only if ", with its pre-existing meaning.

Of course, there is nothing to stop us stipulating that we may read this connective as " only if and if ", although this may lead to confusion.