interregnum

Noun

1. 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...
2. 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...
   • 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...
   • 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...

   Synonyms: hiatus interval moratorium pause recess break breather cessation demurral gap caesura halt halting interregnum interruption lapse respite resting stoppage stopping suspension

3. A period of time between when a minister or pastor leaves a church and when a new one is installed.
4. 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:
5. A temporary exercise of authority or rule during a period of time when there is no monarch or political leader.