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Tandem is a Latin adverb meaning "at length" or "finally". In English, the term was originally used for two or more draft horses harnessed one behind another as opposed to side-by-side. By extension the term now refers to any team (of machines, animals or people) working together one behind another.

It is used as an adjective in "tandem seating", as in a two-seat aircraft where the two occupants sit one behind the other, or in "tandem bicycle", where the riders are seated similarly. By further extension the term tandem is frequently used as a noun to mean an item of equipment, such as a tandem bicycle. Tandem is also used as a term for the wheels on a semi trailer to balance the weight on a load of freight. It is used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects working together.

Alternatively, TANDEM has been used to describe a method of learning languages based on mutual language exchange between tandem partners (ideally each learner is a native speaker in the language the proponent wants to learn). Language schools all over Europe and overseas, organised as TANDEM International, as well as many universities, are working with this method.

It is in use for many more items and situations, e.g. in the real estate world to describe items such as lengthwise two-or-more-car garages, in politics and economics for joint plans and ventures etc.

Tandem may also refer to:

• Tandem signaling
• Tandem skydiving
• Tandem Computers
• Tandem mass spectrometry - see Mass spectrometry
• Tandem accelerator - see Particle accelerator
• Tandem bicycle
• Tandem switch for telephone exchanges without telephones
• Tandem Publishing Co - see Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd
• Tandem, West Yorkshire, a district of Kirklees

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

• TANDEM International, an association of language schools
• The Tandem Foundation
• Tandem Server Bochum
• TANDEM Language Exchange Community

The word was taken from Latin tandem = "at length" in the sense of "at last", "finally", applied humorously to two horses harnessed "at length" instead of side by side.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.