interregnum
noun
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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.
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Examples of interregnum in a Sentence
Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2024
The Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously warned that a great variety of morbid symptoms appear in the interregnum that occurs when the old is dying and the new cannot yet be born.
—Firas Maksad, TIME, 26 Nov. 2024
When Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi began to slow down in the early part of the 2000s, there was an interregnum before Federer et al emerged.
—Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic, 15 July 2024
The motion picture industry first moved aggressively into polemical territory during the prewar interregnum from 1939 to 1941, when Europe was at war but America wasn’t.
—Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Aug. 2024
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“Interregnum.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interregnum. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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interregnum
noun
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