exception

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of excepting or the condition of being excepted; exclusion.
• noun One that is excepted, especially a case that does not conform to a rule or generalization.
• noun An objection or a criticism.
• noun Law A formal protest against a ruling of the trial court on a question of law, such as the admissibility of a certain piece of evidence, to make clear for the record that the issue is being preserved for a potential appeal.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of excepting or leaving out of count; exclusion, or the act of excluding from some number designated, or from a statement or description: as, all voted for the measure with the exception of five.
• noun That which is excepted, excluded, or separated from others in a general statement or description; the person or thing specified as distinct or not included: as, almost every general rule has its exceptions.
• noun An objection; that which is or may be offered in opposition to a rule, proposition, statement, or allegation: with to, sometimes with against.
• noun Objection with dislike; offense; slight anger or resentment: with at or against, but more commonly with to, and generally used with take: as, to take exception at a severe remark; to take exception to what was said.
• noun In law: In conveyancing, a clause in a deed taking out something from that which appears to be granted by the preceding part of the deed, by which means it is severed from the estate granted, and does not pass.
• noun The thing or part of the premises thus withheld.
• noun In equity practice, an allegation, required to be in writing, pointing out the particular matter in an adversary's pleading which is objected to as insufficient or improper.
• noun In common-law practice, the specific statement, required to be in writing or noted on the record, of an objection taken by a party to a ruling or decision by the court or a referee, the object being to show to the higher court to which the matter may be appealed that the ruling was adhered to and carried into effect against explicit objection, or to inform the adverse party of the precise point of the objection, or both. See bill of exceptions, below.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule.
• noun That which is excepted or taken out from others; a person, thing, or case, specified as distinct, or not included.
• noun (Law) An objection, oral or written, taken, in the course of an action, as to bail or security; or as to the decision of a judge, in the course of a trail, or in his charge to a jury; or as to lapse of time, or scandal, impertinence, or insufficiency in a pleading; also, as in conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts something before granted.
• noun An objection; cavil; dissent; disapprobation; offense; cause of offense; -- usually followed by to or against.
• noun (Law) a statement of exceptions to the decision, or instructions of a judge in the trial of a cause, made for the purpose of putting the points decided on record so as to bring them before a superior court or the full bench for review.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule.
• noun That which is excepted or taken out from others; a person, thing, or case, specified as distinct, or not included; as, almost every general rule has its exceptions.
• noun law An objection, on legal grounds; also, as in conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts or reserves something before the right is transferred.
• noun An objection; cavil; dissent; disapprobation; offense; cause of offense; — usually followed by to or against.
• noun computing An interruption in normal processing, especially as caused by an error condition.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an instance that does not conform to a rule or generalization
• noun grounds for adverse criticism
• noun a deliberate act of omission