Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🪑 Partly behind 🚴‍♂️ A two-person bike
semitandem

semitandem

9.6
Arranged partly one behind the other rather than side by side
  • adjective
: semitándem
  • In a semitandem arrangement, the seats are not completely aligned.

Examples

  • The new bicycle design features a semitandem seating arrangement for improved balance.

  • Some rowing boats use a semitandem layout to combine speed and stability.

  • The engineers opted for a semitandem configuration to save space in the vehicle.

  • The semitandem design allows for better communication between the riders.

  • The new bicycle design features a semitandem seating arrangement for improved balance.

  • Some rowing boats use a semitandem layout to combine speed and stability.

  • In a semitandem arrangement, the seats are not completely aligned.

Antonyms

side by side
148 2.2

Next to each other in the same place

tandem
7 4.1

An arrangement of people or things placed one behind the other

How Tandem

single file
19 2.8
semitandem
9.6
staggered
6 4.3
side by side
148 2.2

Surface Forms

semitandem positive

Morphology

semitandem = tandem (transparent) = semi + tandem

The meaning is directly built from semi- ('partly') plus tandem, with only a small shift to a specialized arrangement.

Etymology

The word semitandem joins semi- 'half' and tandem 'one behind the other'. So it describes an arrangement that is partly in line, not fully one behind the other.