interregnum
nounUK /ɪntəˈɹɛɡnəm/ · US /ˌɪntəɹˈɹɛɡnəm/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin interrēgnum, from inter- (prefix meaning ‘between’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér (“between”)) + rēgnum (“reign; royal power”) (nominalized from the neuter of *rēgnus, from rēx (“king; ruler”, oblique stem rēg-) + -nus (suffix forming adjectives), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to righten; to straighten”)). The plural form interregna is a learned borrowing from Latin interrēgna.
A period of time between the end of one monarch's reign and the accession of their successor.
- The Sasanian Interregnum of 628–632
- It was not till the kings had been shorn of power and the interregnum of sham democracy had set in, leaving no virile force in the state or the world to resist the money power, that the opportunity for a world-wide plutocratic despotism arrived.1897, Edward Bellamy, Equality, Chapter 15:
Broadly, Figuratively A break in continuity; a gap, an intermission.
- Is it not Pelham who wonders what becomes of servants when they are not wanted;—whether, like the tones of an instrument, they exist but when called for? About servants we will not decide; but that some such interregnum certainly occurs in female existence on rising from table, no one can doubt who ever noted the sound of the dining and the silence of the drawing-room.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 224:
- This was in that strange pause of the storm which is its most remarkable feature in the South—that singular interregnum of the winds, when, after giving repeated notice of their most terrific action, they seem almost to forget their purpose, and for a few moments appear to slumber in their inactivity.1835, William Gilmore Simms, “chapter XIV”, in The Partisan, Harper, page 179:
3 more examples
- Between the end of the Fowler régime in 1931 and the advent of Stanier in 1932, there was a short interregnum during which Ernest Lemon was in charge, with Ernest Beames as his principal aide-de-camp.1946 May and June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 146:
- All I know is that you could, if you wanted to, find the answers to all sorts of difficult questions buried in that terrible war-torn interregnum between the first pubic hair and the first soiled Durex.1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 17:
- Another element leading to the quick-out-of-the-gate second Trump term took place during the four-year interregnum of President Joe Biden.2025 January 30, Linda Feldmann, “Understanding the Trump chaos: It’s about wielding executive power”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
Christianity Broadly A period of time between when a minister or pastor leaves a church and when a new one is installed.
Government, Politics Broadly A period of time between the end of one political leader's term and the start of the term of their successor; a period of time during which normal executive leadership is interrupted or suspended, and a polity is either left without leadership or has only a temporary one.
- Darker questions still emerge in these dusky final weeks of our interregnum.2025 January 10, Peter Thiel, “A time for truth and reconciliation”, in Financial Times:
Obsolete A temporary exercise of authority or rule during a period of time when there is no monarch or political leader.
- Derived terms
- interregnal
- Related terms
- interreign, regency