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Tandem is a Latin adverb
Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentence s and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
 meaning "at length" or "finally." In English, the term was originally used for two or more draft horse
Draft horse

A draft horse , draught horse or dray horse is a large horse bred for hard, heavy tasks such as ploughing and farm labour. There are a number of different list of horse breeds, with varying characteristics but all share common traits of strength, patience and a docile temperament which made them indispensable to generations of...
s 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.

In English, tandem is often 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
Tandem bicycle

The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement instead of the number of riders....
", where the riders are seated similarly.






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Tandem is a Latin adverb
Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentence s and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
 meaning "at length" or "finally." In English, the term was originally used for two or more draft horse
Draft horse

A draft horse , draught horse or dray horse is a large horse bred for hard, heavy tasks such as ploughing and farm labour. There are a number of different list of horse breeds, with varying characteristics but all share common traits of strength, patience and a docile temperament which made them indispensable to generations of...
s 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.

In English, tandem is often 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
Tandem bicycle

The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement instead of the number of riders....
", where the riders are seated similarly. Tandem is also used as a term for the wheels on a semi trailer to balance the weight of a load of freight. In the real estate
Real estate

Real estate is a law term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location. world it describes items such as parking
Parking

Parking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions....
 in lengthwise two-or-more-car garages
Garage (house)

A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed....
, and in telephony, a Class 4 telephone switch
Class 4 telephone switch

A Class 4 or Tandem switch is U.S. telephone company central office telephone exchange used for long distance communications in the Public Switched Telephone Network to interconnect ILEC offices....
 which connects other switches.

"Tandem" can be used more vaguely to refer to any group of persons or objects working together, not necessarily in line. "In tandem", for example, in politics and business to describe joint plans and ventures. A tandem may also refer to Tandem language learning, a language learning method in which two partners of different mother tongues each help the other learn the foreign language.