Word of the Day

: March 31, 2007

interstice

noun in-TER-stus

What It Means

1 : space that intervenes between things; especially : one between closely spaced things

2 : short space of time between events

interstice in Context

Paula found a bundle of love letters tucked in an interstice in the wall, where they must have been hidden by one of the house's former occupants.

Did You Know?

You don't need to read between the lines to understand the history of "interstice"; its etymology is plain to see. "Interstice" derives from the Latin "interstitium," which is itself formed from the prefix "inter-," meaning "between," and "-stes," meaning "standing." Interstices are the cracks and crevices of life, and the word is often used for both the literal and figurative gaps of the world. In modern uses, "interstice" can even refer to gaps in time or to special niches in the larger expanse of something else. Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould used it, for example, to comment, "Dinosaurs held sway for 100 million years while mammals, all the while, lived as small animals in the interstices of their world."

*Indicates the sense illustrated by the example sentence.