Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF)

In conjunctive normal form, statements in Boolean logic are conjunctions of clauses with clauses of disjunctions. In other words, a statement is a series of ORs connected by ANDs.

For example:

(A OR B) AND (C OR D)

(A OR B) AND (NOT C OR B)

The clauses may also be literals:

A OR B

A AND B

Literals are seen in CNF as conjunctions of literal clauses and conjunctions that happen to have a single clause. It is possible to convert statements into CNF that are written in another form, such as disjunctive normal form.