Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The interval of time between the end of a sovereign's reign and the accession of a successor.
- n. A period of temporary suspension of the usual functions of government or control.
- n. A gap in continuity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An intermission between reigns; an interval of time elapsing between the end of one reign and the beginning of the next, as in the case of a disputed or uncertain succession.
- n. Hence An intermission in any order of succession; any breach of continuity in action or influence.
Wiktionary
- n. The period of time between the end of a sovereign's reign and the accession of another sovereign.
- n. A period of time during which normal executive leadership is suspended or interrupted.
- n. An intermission in any order of succession; any breach of continuity in action or influence.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The time during which a throne is vacant between the death or abdication of a sovereign and the accession of his successor.
- n. Any period during which, for any cause, the executive branch of a government is suspended or interrupted.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the time between two reigns, governments, etc.
Etymologies
- From Latin inter- "between" + the accusative of regnum (which is regnum) meaning "reign", "power" or "kingdom". Literally meaning "between reign" or "between kingdom". (Wiktionary)
- Latin : inter-, inter- + rēgnum, reign; see reign. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Are there again interregnum periods between the ages as between gold and silver?”
“The presidential interregnum is a recurrent period of danger.”
“Seriously, I am sorry that you are in interregnum ...”
“VINCI: Well, we are technically now in what is called the interregnum, which is the period in between two reigns.”
“COOPER: And of course now, we are in what is called the interregnum, the period between the popes.”
“ZAHN (voice over): Now that Pope John Paul II has died and official process, know as interregnum, or between the reigns, has begun.”
“The death of this pope, ushers in a period known as the interregnum, or between the reigns.”
“This is called the interregnum, the period between the popes.”
“What begins now -- we are in what is called the interregnum period, the period after which the pope has died and a new pope has not yet been -- been named.”
“The Juliet of one season is not the Nurse or the Lady Capulet of the next; a considerable time passes before there is such a shift of characters, and she acts nothing at all during the interregnum, which is spent in vain attempts to get the Juliet parts, met with cruel rebuffs on the score of age.”
Our Stage and Its Critics By "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette"
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘interregnum’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 270 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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250 More Spelling Words
More words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
melisma, dioecious, jejunity, sialogogue, zingiber, zendik, dithyramb, pneuma, kachina, agiotage, baedeker, sabulous and 238 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 185 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 198 more...
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HU Realia
Cultural realia from Hungary.
I have only included realia that already have an English spelling variant and DID NOT include Hungarian words that would be used in English texts unchang...charcoal kiln, embroidered felt ..., farmstead, golden stick, graft, herdsman’s whip, inn, lever well, limekiln, local border traffic, maypole, merino and 356 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Thresholds
we are all just passing through.
(boundaries, portals and liminal spaces/times)cockcrow, interface, thin line, portal, postern, littoral, interstice, port, membrane, skin, crepuscule, dawn and 309 more...
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There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 69 more...
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Greg's List
precarious, transient, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, transitoriness, volatility, caducity, span, interregnum, effervescent, mine and 63 more...
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Awesome Names for Your Heavy Metal Band
onslaught, gamecock, chthonic, hoarfrost, kernicterus, keelhaul, simulacrum, clavicle, interregnum, catafalque, gravamen, blunderbuss and 47 more...
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GRE
pejorative, austere, unconscionable, lissome, edify, winsome, axiom, malinger, abjure, deleterious, contumacious, peregrinate and 152 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for interregnum.
seanahan I know this from Foundation. Dec 19, 2007
bilby Odd that I remember this word clearly for only one reason: Jill Jolliffe's seminal work 'East Timor: Nationalism And Colonialism'. Dec 19, 2007