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/ɪnˈtɜː.stɪs/ · noun
A small opening or space between objects, especially adjacent objects or objects set closely together, such as between cords in a rope, components of a multiconductor electrical cable or atoms in a crystal..
1887, Osborne Reynolds, Experiments showing Dilatancy, in Notices of the Proceedings, Volume 11, Royal Institution of Great Britain, page 360, The tide leaves the sand, though apparently dry on the surface, with all its interstices perfectly full of water which is kept up to the surface of the sand by capillary attraction; at the same time the water is percolating through the sand from the sands above where the capillary action is not sufficient to hold the water. When the foot falls on this water-saturated sand it tends to change its shape, but it cannot do this without enlarging the interstices—without drawing in more water. This is a work of time, so that the foot is gone again before the sand has yielded.
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.
Use interstice when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Interstice means A small opening or space between objects, especially adjacent objects or objects set closely together, such as between cords in a rope, components of a multiconductor electrical cable or atoms in a crystal..
Common synonyms include chink, crack, cranny, crevice.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
1887, Osborne Reynolds, Experiments showing Dilatancy, in Notices of the Proceedings, Volume 11, Royal Institution of Great Britain, page 360, The tide leaves the sand, though apparently dry on the surface, with all its interstices perfectly full of water which is kept up to the surface of the sand by capillary attraction; at the same time the water is percolating through the sand from the sands above where the capillary action is not sufficient to hold the water. When the foot falls on this water-saturated sand it tends to change its shape, but it cannot do this without enlarging the interstices—without drawing in more water. This is a work of time, so that the foot is gone again before the sand has yielded.
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