interregnum

interregnum

\ in-tuhr-REG-nuhm \  , noun;

plural interregnums  \-nuhmz\ or interregna  \-nuh\

1. The interval between two reigns; any period when a state is left without a ruler.

 

2. A period of freedom from authority or during which government functions are suspended. 

3. Any breach of continuity in an order; a lapse or interval in a continuity.

 

Quotes:

Forewarned by his equations that the Galactic Empire is about to collapse, Seldon hopes to shorten the inevitable interregnum  from a predicted 30,000 years of bloody anarchy to a mere thousand.

-- Gerald Jonas, review of Foundation's Fear , by Gregory Benford, New York Times , April 6, 1997

They were at the moment enjoying a sort of interregnum  from Roman authority.

-- Frederic William Farrar, Life of St. Paul

Architecture Culture presents 74 essays, speeches and magazine articles from the postwar era, a period Ms. Ockman describes as an interregnum  between modernism and post-modernism.

-- Herbert Muschamp, "The Creative Ferment Behind the Glass Boxes", New York Times , June 13, 1993

Origin:

Interregnum  is from the Latin, from inter , "between" + regnum , "dominion, reign, rule," from rex , "king."