In a comment on the Sustainable Living beta Stack Exchange site I wrote
The interesting part is the different transport mechanisms involved
when it's either too cold or too hot inside.
Later on I was wondering if the either/or-construct would be the right one here.
Would it be better to say
"The interesting part is the different transport mechanisms involved when it's too cold or too hot inside, respectively"?
Right, context.
It's about heat transfer, where the most relevant transport mechanism changes, depending on the heat going out (heat losses due to convection and conduction) or coming in (sun radiation).
Best Answer
"Respectively" is used to indicate two separate items being described in order:
In this sentence, the word "respectively" means that the sentence is broken up into chunks thus:
Respectively tells you that the list of nouns matches the list of descriptions 1-1 in the same order.
"Either" on the other hand represents a choice.
Here's a sentence that shows the two mixed together:
In this case "respectively" is used to indicate that the steak comes with fries, while the soup comes with bread. In particular, the steak doesn't come with bread, and the soup doesn't come with fries.