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I am wondering if one sentence can have multiple uses of the word "wherein". For example, can a sentence be like the following?

XXX, wherein ........., wherein ........., and wherein ......... .

Or does it have to be like the following?

XXX, wherein ........., ........., and ......... .

I have done searches on Google many times, but in some of the results, the first form is used while in others, the second form is used, and I cannot figure out which one is the correct way to use "wherein".

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    It's OK, but why on earth do you want to use it even once? It's a very rare word, almost never found in contemporary texts. Use in which, unless you're aiming at pseudo-legalese or a tongue-in-cheek archaic effect. Commented May 6, 2016 at 8:43
  • @StoneyB I'm working on a patent document translation assignment right now and had no idea, so I wanted an answer from a native speaker like you. So, if I used terms like this in everyday conversations or emails, I would be seen as a bit weird...right?Thank you so much for your help!
    – Mikiko
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 9:19
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    Legal documents (at times) repetitively use words like 'whereas' (when providing the 'whereas clauses'), in your case, 'wherein'.
    – shin
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 9:33
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    If you're preparing a legal filing, you need to consult a patent lawyer; that's the only person who can advise you what courts and bureaucracies require. But if you're just trying to represent the technical content, stick with the same clean, precise, accurate language you'd use in a professional paper. Commented May 6, 2016 at 9:58
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    You can get a sense of patent form on the Google patents site. patents.google.com/patent/US3685221A/en?q=wherein
    – TimR
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 10:47

2 Answers 2

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It's OK, but why on earth do you want to use it even once? It's a very rare word, almost never found in contemporary texts. Use in which, unless you're aiming at pseudo-legalese or a tongue-in-cheek archaic effect.

If you're preparing a legal filing, you need to consult a patent lawyer; that's the only person who can advise you what courts and bureaucracies require. But if you're just trying to represent the technical content, stick with the same clean, precise, accurate language you'd use in a professional paper. – StoneyB

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It's fine to repeat it, but it makes the text horrible to parse. You'll find that "wherein" is almost exclusively used by lawyers who are trying to remove ambiguity in a sentence introduced by the use of commas. You find a set of similarly used words like "hereinafter" and "wherewithout", they're called pronominal adverbs, and with a few exceptions like "wherever", "thereabouts" and "whereas" they're very rarely used.

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