Hiatus is the term used to represent the pause or gap in the course of a continuous event. Usually, it serves to name the temporary interruption of a series, for example.
Some television series, in particular, have a hiatus period in the middle of the season, which can last for a few weeks or months.
The hiatus serve as a break for the actors and to ensure a possible restructuring of the script and production of the series. As a rule, hiatus are made during the end of the year festivities (halloween, Christmas and New Year).
The last episode aired before the show's hiatus is called mid season finale (end of mid-season). There is also a hiatus between the showing of new seasons, in which case the waiting time is usually longer.
Music artists also tend to “go on hiatus” between the release of new albums.
The word hiatus is Latin and used with this spelling in the English language. For the Portuguese language, this term is translated to “hiatus”.
See also: O meaning of hiatus.