An
interregnum (plural
interregna or
interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin
inter-, "between" and
regnum, "reign" [from
rex, regis, "king"]), and the concepts of interregnum and
regency therefore overlap.