Thenoun is borrowed fromLatintandem(“of time: at last, at length, finally”), applied humorously in English to two horses harnessed “at length” (that is, in a single line) instead of side-by-side.^[1][2]Tandem is derived fromtam(“so, to such an extent”) +-dem(demonstrativesuffix).

Theadjective,^[1]adverb,^[2] andverb^[3] are derived from the noun.

• (Received Pronunciation,General Australian)IPA^(key):/ˈtændəm/
• (General American)IPA^(key):/ˈtændəm/,[ˈtɛəndəm]

• Audio(General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ændəm
• Hyphenation:tan‧dem

tandem (countable anduncountable,pluraltandems)(alsoattributive)

1. (countable) Acarriagepulled bytwo or moredraught animals (generallydraught horses)harnessed onebehind the other, bothprovidingpulling power but only theanimal in front being able tosteer.[from mid 18th c.]
   • 1804,Maria Edgeworth, “The Contrast. Chapter II. Ignorance of Things, into which It is a Duty to Enquire, is the Cause of Many Odious Vices.”, inPopular Tales, volume III, London: Printed forJ[oseph] Johnson, […],[b]y C. Mercier and Co., […],→OCLC,page30:

     [H]e was a man whose head was at this time entirely full of gigs, andtandems, and unicorns: business was his aversion; pleasure was his business.

   • 1807 August 11,Lord Byron, “Letter XVII. To Miss ——.”, inThomas Moore, editor,Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life, […], volume I, London:John Murray, […], published1830,→OCLC,pages118–119:

     A friend of mine accompanies me in my carriage to Edinburgh. There we shall leave it, and proceed in atandem (a species of open carriage) through the western passes to Inverary, where we shall purchaseshelties, to enable us to view places inaccessible tovehicular conveyances.

   • 1848 November –1850 December,William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Pendennis Appears as a Very Young Man Indeed”, inThe History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London:Bradbury and Evans, […], published1849,→OCLC,page31:

     Mr. Foker was no more like a gentleman now than in his school days: and yet Pen felt a secret pride in strutting down High Street with a young fellow who ownedtandems, talked to officers, and ordered turtle and champagne for dinner.

   • 1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “St. Ambrose’s College”, inTom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.:Ticknor and Fields, published1861,→OCLC,page 3:

     The chief characteristic of this set was the most reckless extravagance of every kind.[…] They drovetandems in all directions, scattering their ample allowances, which they treated as pocket money, about roadside inns and Oxford taverns with open hand, and going tick for every thing which could by possibility be booked.

2. (by extension,countable)
   1. Two draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other.
      • [1903], Charles Dudley, “Equine London”, inGeorge R[obert] Sims, editor,Living London: Its Work and Its Play, Its Humour and Its Pathos, Its Sights and Its Scenes, special edition, volume II, section I, London:Cassell and Company,→OCLC,pages158–159, column 2:

        Later in the day the Row is empty, but, on the other hand, the pleasure horse monopolises the circle, now comparatively deserted. Singly, in pairs,tandems, and fours, he draws the family carriage with a lozenge on the panels, the brougham of the fashionable doctor, the coupé of the popular actress, the man about town's smart dog-cart.

   2. Athing with twocomponentsarranged one behind the other.

      If you want a canoe that can seat both of you comfortably, you’ll need atandem.

      2. (specifically,cycling)Short fortandem bicycle(“abicycle ortricycle in which twopeoplesit one behind the other, bothable topedal but only the person in front being able to steer”).[from late 19th c.]
   3. (medicine) Ahollowmetaltubecontainingradioactivematerial,inserted through thevagina into theuterus totreatgynecologicalcancer.
      • 2007, Akila N. Viswanathan, Daniel G. Petereit, “Gynecologic Brachytherapy”, in Phillip M. Devlin, editor,Brachytherapy: Applications and Techniques, Philadelphia, Pa.:Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,→ISBN, page236:

        If an interstitial implant is placed in a patient with an intact uterus, atandem should be inserted and loaded with cesium 137 or iridium 192.

3. (figurative)
   1. (countable) Agroup of two or moremachines, people, etc.,working together; hence(uncountable),closecollaboration.
      • 1851 November 14,Herman Melville, “Stubb’s Supper”, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers; London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC,page324:

        Stubb's whale had been killed some distance from the ship. It was a calm; so, forming atandem of three boats, we commenced the slow business of towing the trophy to the Pequod.

   2. (uncountable,education) Amethod oflanguagelearningbased onmutualexchange, whereideally eachlearner is anative speaker in the language the other personwants tolearn.
      • 2007, Jane Woodin, “Intercultural Positioning: Tandem Conversations about Word Meaning”, in Regina Weinert, editor,Spoken Language Pragmatics: An Analysis of Form-Function Relations, London; New York, N.Y.:Continuum,→ISBN,page208:

        Spanish and Englishtandem learners discuss the meaning of a given word in a semi-structured conversation.[…]Tandem learning is the term used to describe the learning which takes place when native speakers and learners of each other's language learn from each other and help each other learn.[…]Tandem learners are responsible for identifying their own needs, setting their own coals and finding means to achieve them.

tandem (notcomparable)

1. Onebehind the other; insingle file.

   Synonym:in tandem

   Coordinate term:abreast

   The horses were harnessedtandem.

   to ridetandem on a bicycle built for two

   • 1956 October,Isaac Asimov, chapter II, inThe Naked Sun, Garden City, N.Y.:Doubleday & Company, published1957,→OCLC,page27:

     There was nothing too exotic about the ground-car. There were two seats intandem, each of which could hold three.

2. (figurative) Inclosecollaboration;collaboratively,cooperatively.

• in tandem

tandem (notcomparable)

1. Withtwocomponentsarranged onebehind the other.

   tandem canoe   tandem engine

2. (figurative)Workingtogethercollaboratively;collaborative,cooperative.

   Their skillfultandem work made the project quick and successful.

• randem

tandem (third-person singular simple presenttandems,present participletandeming,simple past and past participletandemed)

1. (ambitransitive)Synonym oftandemize(“(transitive) toharness ordrive (twodraught animals, generallydraught horses) onebehind the other; toset up (two or morethings, such aspieces orequipment) toworkin tandem ortogether; (intransitive) to drive a tandem (‘carriagepulled by two or more draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other’)”)
   • 1861, “a retired civil engineer”[pseudonym], “Westport—The Killeries”, inIerne. Or, Anecdotes and Incidents during a Life Chiefly in Ireland. […] (First Series), London: Partridge and Co., […],→OCLC,page208:

     [O]ur dog-cart having come to hand, from the hilliness of the road, wetandemed the ten miles due west, along the southern shore of Clew Bay.

   • 1866 May 1, “Visits to the Paradise of Artists. IV. Pompeii.—The Enchanting Sights and Disenchanting Sounds of Naples.—Capri.”, inThe Art-Journal, volume V (New Series), London:Virtue & Co.,page129, column 2:

     And sometimes these nymphs [on frescoes] aretandeming the daintiest little gryphons so pleasantly that one longs (in the dream) to be with them, not fearing a reverse.

   • 1886 July 9, “Pencilled Paragraphs”, inThe Cycle, volume I, number15, Boston, Mass.: Abbot Bassett,→OCLC,page263, column 3:

     Hendee is located at the New Marlboro', and istandeming with his lady friends through the Newtons daily.

   • 1898 July 16, “The Gentle Art.Harry Druidale, Fisherman, from Manxland to England. By Henry Cadman. London: Macmillan & Co.[book review]”, in [Thomas Wemyss Reid], editor,The Speaker, London: The Speaker Office,→OCLC,page87:

     Mr. Cadman gives a humorous description of their journey, as theytandemed the donkey to drag their impedimenta up the slope of 1,200 feet.

   • 1971 November, H. Seidel, “A Microwave Feed-forward Experiment”, inThe Bell System Technical Journal, volume50, number 9, New York, N.Y.:American Telephone and Telegraph Company,→ISSN,→OCLC,page2892:

     [A]n excessively dissipative error cancellation delay line is unacceptable, since that line directlytandems the main power amplifier.

   • 1989, Andrew Scott[pseudonym; Lionel Trapes?], chapter 3, inThe Oyster, volume IV, New York, N.Y.: Blue Moon Books, published2006,→ISBN,page80:

     Charlotte, who I had not yet had the chance to do more than talk to, wastandeming [on a tandem bicycle] with George but each was accusing the other of not putting in their fare share of the pedalling.

   • 1990, Coyne Steven Sanders,Rainbow’s End: The Judy Garland Show, New York, N.Y.:William Morrow and Company,→ISBN,page233:

     No strained informality this asJudy [Garland]tandemed provocative chatter with her guestsLena Horne andTerry-Thomas.

   • 2002, Regis J. (Bud) Bates, “Frame Relay”, inBroadband Telecommunications Handbook (McGraw-Hill Telecommunications), 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.:McGraw-Hill,→ISBN,page205:

     Remote-office-to-remote-office communication happens bytandeming through the headquarters router. The headquarters router and port connection can become bottlenecks. Network latency increases withtandeming.

•  tandem on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•  tandem (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed fromGermanTandem, fromEnglishtandem,^[1] originally fromLatintandem(“at last”).^[2]

• IPA^(key):[ˈtandɛm]

tandem m inan

1. tandem

Borrowed fromEnglishtandem.

• IPA^(key):/ˈtɑn.dɛm/

• Audio:

  (file)

tandem m (pluraltandems,diminutivetandempje n)

1. tandem(vehicle, bicycle)
2. tandem(arrangement)
3. (biology) a phase in the mating ritual of dragonflies
4. apair, acouple, aduo

<Latintandem viaEnglishtandem

• IPA^(key):/ˈtɑndem/,[ˈt̪ɑ̝nde̞m]
• Rhymes:-ɑndem
• Hyphenation^(key):tan‧dem

tandem

1. tandem bicycle

   Synonym:tandempyörä

2. Synonym ofjonovaljakko(“tandem”)(team of draft animals harnessed in a row).

   tandem-valjakko ―tandem team

3. (in compounds)tandem-

   Synonym:jono-

   tandem-menetelmä ―tandem method

Borrowed fromEnglishtandem.

• IPA^(key):/tɑ̃.dɛm/

tandem m (pluraltandems)

1. tandem(vehicle, bicycle)

• “tandem”, inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

• dament

Borrowed from Latintandem.

• IPA^(key):/ˈtandɛm/

tandem

1. (neologism)finally,at last,eventually

   Synonym:fine

Unadapted borrowing fromEnglishtandem.

• IPA^(key):/ˈtan.dem/^[1]
• Rhymes:-andem
• Hyphenation:tàn‧dem

tandem m (invariable)

1. tandem(all senses)

Fromtam(“so”) +‎-dem(“new interpreted particle fromīdem”). Compare with its earlier doublet:tamen. Both with original meaning supposedly"so(much)ever".

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key):/ˈtan.dem/,[ˈt̪än̪d̪ɛ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key):/ˈtan.dem/,[ˈt̪än̪d̪em]

tandem (notcomparable)

1. at length,at last,finally,eventually
   • 29BCE – 19BCE,Virgil,Aeneid4.304:

     Tandem hīs Aenēān compellat vōcibus ultrō: [...].

     At last [Dido] – of her own accord – confronts Aeneas, to say to him: [...].

2. used also as an adverbial intensifier of interrogatives to a somewhat greater degree than-nam

• The particle-nam and adverbtandem(“finally”) may be added tointerrogative pronouns andadverbs to addemphasis. The adverbtandem adds stronger emphasis.

• demum,postremo

• Sicilian:tannu

• “tandem”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tandem”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tandem inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995)New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press,→ISBN

• Hyphenation:tan‧dem

tandem m (pluraltandens)

1. tandem(bicycle with two seats and two sets of pedals)

Borrowed fromFrenchtandem.

tandem n (pluraltandemuri)

1. tandem

• IPA^(key):/ˈtanden/[ˈt̪ãn̪.d̪ẽn]
• Rhymes:-anden

tandem m (pluraltandems)

1. tandem
2. language exchange

Borrowed fromEnglishtandem.

tandem m (pluraltandemau)

1. tandem bicycle

• beic