: the time during which a throne is vacant between two successive reigns or regimes
2
: a period during which the normal functions of government or control are suspended
3
: a lapse or pause in a continuous series
Did you know?
Every time a pope dies, there's an interregnum period before a new one is elected by the cardinals. In most democratic systems, however, the law specifies who should take office when a president or prime minister dies unexpectedly, and since the power usually passes automatically, there's no true interregnum. The question of succession—that is, of who should take over when a country's leader dies—has often presented huge problems for countries that lacked a constitution, and in monarchies it hasn't always been clear who should become king or queen when a monarch dies. The interregnum following the death of Edward VI in 1553, for instance, was briefly suspended when Lady Jane Grey was installed as Queen; nine days later she was replaced by Mary Tudor, who sent her straight to the Tower of London.
the democratic regime proved to be a short-lived interregnum between dictatorships
Recent Examples on the WebIn the interregnum between Election Day and Inauguration Day, Hitchens convenes a band of like-minded men into a secret society, complete with code names, dedicated to throwing sand in the gears of the incoming administration. Sam Sacks, WSJ, 2 Sep. 2022 Weeks later, after the Japanese surrender, the American Seventh Fleet sailed into Shanghai to begin what turned out to be a freewheeling, if relatively brief, interregnum before revolutionary Communist forces took control.New York Times, 31 May 2022 The Coast Guard’s focus on personnel is not one of those controversial measures that is traditionally rushed through in the interregnum between a major leadership change. Craig Hooper, Forbes, 19 May 2022 He was nominated mostly because Democrats saw him as their best bet against President Trump, so Biden’s victory marked an interregnum rather than a turning point in the history of the Democratic Party.Los Angeles Times, 2 Mar. 2022 So in the interregnum between his two programs, Colbert sought out Batiste to be his stage partner at CBS. David Kamp, WSJ, 1 Mar. 2022 The two-week interregnum between the conference championships and the Super Bowl brought the rest of the drama. Ian Crouch, The New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2022 As the Dolphins continue their slow journey to the scrapyard, the challenge for the Coast Guard is to keep the interregnum as tolerable as possible for the MH-65 community. Craig Hooper, Forbes, 28 Jan. 2022 Like an interregnum, zwischenzeitig implies a phase between more stable periods. Nate Dicamillo, Quartz, 6 Dec. 2021 See More