Borrowed from Latin interrēgnum.

• (America) IPA: /ˌɪntəɹˈɹɛɡnəm/

interregnum (plural interregnums)

1. The period of time between the end of a sovereign's reign and the accession of another sovereign.

   The Sasanian Interregnum of 628–632

2. (politics) A period of time during which normal executive leadership is suspended or interrupted.
3. (by extension) An intermission in any order of succession; any breach of continuity in action or influence.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC ↗, page 224 ↗:

     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 certainly occurs in female existence on rising from table, no one can doubt who ever noted the sound of the dining and the silence of the drawing-room.

   • 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 17 ↗:

     All I know is that you could, if you wanted to, find the answers to all sorts of difficult questions buried in that terrible war-torn interregnum between the first pubic hair and the first soiled Durex.

• (breach of continuity in action) hiatus, moratorium, recess; see also Thesaurus:pause

• French: interrègne
• German: Interregnum
• Italian: interregno
• Portuguese: interregno
• Russian: междуца́рствие
• Spanish: interregno

• German: Pause, Unterbrechung