exclamation

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

• noun An abrupt, forceful utterance.
• noun An outcry, as of protest.
• noun Grammar An interjection.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of exclaiming; an ejaculatory expression of surprise, admiration, pain, anger, dissent, or the like; an emphatic or clamorous outcry.
• noun That which is uttered with emphasis or passion; a vehement speech or saying.
• noun The mark or sign in writing and printing (!) by which emphatic utterance or interjectional force is indicated: usually called exclamation mark or -point, and formerly note of admiration. See ecphoneme.
• noun In grammar, a word expressing outcry; an interjection; a word expressing some passion, as wonder, fear, or grief.
• noun In rhet, same as ecphonesis, 1.
• noun In the Gr. Ch., same as ecphonesis, 2.

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

• noun A loud calling or crying out; outcry; loud or emphatic utterance; vehement vociferation; clamor; that which is cried out, as an expression of feeling; sudden expression of sound or words indicative of emotion, as in surprise, pain, grief, joy, anger, etc.
• noun (Rhet.) A word expressing outcry; an interjection; a word expressing passion, as wonder, fear, or grief.
• noun (Print.) A mark or sign by which outcry or emphatic utterance is marked; thus [!]; -- called also exclamation point.

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

• noun A loud calling or crying out; outcry; loud or emphatic utterance; vehement vociferation; clamor; that which is cried out, as an expression of feeling; sudden expression of sound or words indicative of emotion, as in surprise, pain, grief, joy, anger, etc.
• noun A word expressing outcry; an interjection; a word expressing passion, as wonder, fear, or grief.

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

• noun an abrupt excited utterance
• noun a loud complaint or protest or reproach
• noun an exclamatory rhetorical device