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I need to write about a technology which works with another in parallel.

What is a single word which means something like "something which works in parallel" or "works in parallel"?

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Do you mean that your sentence would read "X is a Y technology" and Y is a word that means "something that works in parallel with other things"? – Tom Ravenscroft Feb 10 '11 at 6:11
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Just throwing some words out there to stimulate thinking on this: compatible, symbiotic, cooperative, coordinated, synergistic, concurrent, synchronized, shared, ... – Alex Feb 10 '11 at 6:15
actually I want a noun word .. well, I have a .net project which works in parallel with an asp.net project. So I needed to name that .net project in this way ".net collaboration" in an email .. (btw, collaborate would do :)) – InfantPro'Aravind' Feb 10 '11 at 13:10
Parallel means "beside other." It comes from the Greek words para allio-sis which means "beside other." – ana Dec 31 '12 at 13:43
@Ana, thank you very much for your valuable information :) – InfantPro'Aravind' Dec 31 '12 at 14:09

7 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I'd say that usually you'd need to specify "X works in parallel with Y".

Although you could say "X is a concurrent technology" if you qualified earlier what a concurrent technology was.

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thanks accepted as BA :) – InfantPro'Aravind' Feb 10 '11 at 13:13
up vote 2 down vote

Jez: "synchronous" means together in time" (syn + chron + ous)

Potatoswatter: "complementary" would vaguely suggest the connotation of "supporting"

Tom & Aviral: "concurrent" could fit the bill, as it literally means "running together with" (con + curr + ent)

Alex: "simultaneous" doesn't quite convey the deliberation that "collateral" and "concurrent"
do. Such a deliberation is necessary when talking of something that "works together
with something."

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hey thats significant :) more elaborated .. I have accepted concurrence :) – InfantPro'Aravind' Feb 10 '11 at 15:11
up vote 3 down vote

The most befitting word for your situation is "collateral", see below for derivation

Collateral derives from the Latin roots

col- = "together with/in"

later- = "side"

Therefore, it literally means "together at the side, or parallel"

Web definitions:

col·lat·er·al Adjective /kəˈlatərəl/ /kəˈlatrəl/

  1. Additional but subordinate; secondary E.g. the collateral meanings of a word

  2. Situated side by side; parallel E.g. collateral veins

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thanks for the help :) it was significant answer :) +1 – InfantPro'Aravind' Feb 10 '11 at 13:14
up vote 7 down vote

Being a developer, the first word I'd think of would be concurrent, however you can also use:

  • parallel
  • synchronous
  • simultaneously

Since you mentioned "writing about technology", I'd say that concurrent and synchronous would technically be the most correct in this situation.

wrt. Tom's answer, I really wouldn't feel the need to explain the meaning of concurrent (unless it was an introductory manual), because most developers (sysadmins, etc.) would already know what that meant.

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Did you mean synchronous instead of asynchronous (@Jez's answer)? – Tragicomic Feb 10 '11 at 10:01
Yeah. My bad. Fixed. – aviraldg Feb 10 '11 at 10:02
thanks .. :) that was helpful info :) – InfantPro'Aravind' Feb 10 '11 at 13:11
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In a technical sense I don't think you could use the words synchronous and concurrent interchangeably. 'synchronous' would usually be used to describe a technology that relies on a clock signal to trigger events. – Tom Ravenscroft Feb 10 '11 at 23:43
Tom: concurrent is still the best here, as I've mentioned. – aviraldg Feb 11 '11 at 1:22
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up vote 0 down vote

'Something which is synchronous'?

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up vote 0 down vote

Maybe "simultaneously" fits perfectly?

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if its technology I would rather choose .. Concurrence or collaborated etc :) so I have accepted the same answer .. anyways thanks for the useful discussion :) – InfantPro'Aravind' Feb 10 '11 at 15:13
up vote 0 down vote

Complementary is the most likely choice, but we might need more context.

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well I have chosen Concurrence .. which suits more incase of technologies :) thanks for useful discussion.. – InfantPro'Aravind' Feb 10 '11 at 15:12
@infant: Concurrence means two things happen at the same time, simultaneously. Complementary means they benefit each other. The meanings are quite different, so be sure to choose what you mean. – Potatoswatter Feb 11 '11 at 6:08

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