Noun

(en noun)

A distance in space.

* Milton

'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left, / A dreadful interval .

A period of time.

the interval between contractions during childbirth

(music) The difference (a ratio or logarithmic measure) in pitch between two notes, often referring to those two pitches themselves (otherwise known as a dyad).

(mathematics) A connected section of the real line which may be empty or have a length of zero.

(chiefly, British) An intermission.

(sports) half time, a scheduled intermission between the periods of play

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=November 12 , author= , title=International friendly: England 1-0 Spain , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Spain made three substitutions at the interval , sending on former Arsenal captain Fabregas, Chelsea's Juan Mata and Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina for Xavi, David Silva and Casillas.}}

(cricket) Either of the two breaks, at lunch and tea, between the three sessions of a day's play

Noun

(en noun)

(US) A break for a worker or workers that splits a period of work.

* 2007 , National Labor Relations Board (U.S.) (editor), Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board , Volume 346: November 28, 2005—May 8, 2006, page 39,

Supervisor Laws asserts that when the incident occurred it was not the breaktime of either Tingler or Parnell. (4:760,789.)

(UK) A break for schoolchildren between lessons.

* 1992 , David Freer, Towards Open Schools: Possibilities and Realities for Non-Racial Education in South Africa , page 130,

It tends to evaluate the liking for, and the acceptance of, the pupils in their class as peers, rather than asking children to specifically select their friends, breaktime and home companions.

* 2006 , Brigette Bishop, Promoting Friendships in the Playground: A Peer Befriending Programme for Primary Schools , page 4,

The significance of breaktimes as a mechanism for children to develop social competence is highlighted in much of Peter Blatchford's work.

* 2010 , Karen Littleton, Clare Wood, Judith Kleine Staarman, International Handbook of Psychology in Education , page 231,

Designed by architects working for Norman Foster, it had no playground and no morning breaktime .