interstice

Old French interstice, from Latin interstitium.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɜː.stɪs/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɚ.stɪs/

interstice (plural interstices)

1. A small opening or space between objects, especially adjacent objects or objects set closely together, as between cords in a rope or components of a multiconductor electrical cable or between atoms in a crystal.
2. (figuratively) A fragment of space.
   • 2013 August 14, Simon Jenkins, “Gibraltar and the Falklands deny the logic of history”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 10 August 2014:

     Relics of the British empire now mostly survive in the interstices of the global economy. They are the major winners from the fiscal haemorrhage that has resulted from financial globalisation.

3. An interval of time required by the Roman Catholic Church between the attainment of different degrees of an order.
4. (by extension) A small interval of time free to be spent on activities other than one's primary goal.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:interstice.

• (small opening or space between objects): chink, crack, cranny, crevice, fissure, gap, slit; see also Thesaurus:interspace or Thesaurus:hole

• interstitial

• interstice in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• interstice in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.stis/

interstice m (plural interstices)

1. (religion) interstice
2. gap, interval

• interstitiel

• “interstice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.