moderation

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of moderating or restraining; the process of tempering, lessening, or mitigating.
• noun The state or quality of being moderate or keeping a due mean between opposite extremes; freedom from excess; temperance; due restraint.
• noun Habitual slowness of thought, speech, or action; great deliberation.
• noun The act of presiding over, regulating, or directing as a moderator.
• noun plural In the University of Oxford, England, the first public examination for degrees.
• noun Synonyms Forbearance, equanimity, sobriety, self-restraint, mildness, composure, calmness.

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

• noun The act of moderating, or of imposing due restraint.
• noun The state or quality of being mmoderate.
• noun Calmness of mind; equanimity.
• noun The first public examinations for degrees at the University of Oxford; -- usually contracted to mods.

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

• noun The state or quality of being moderate; avoidance of extremes
• noun An instance of moderating: bringing something away from extremes, especially in a beneficial way
• noun The process of moderating a discussion

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

• noun quality of being moderate and avoiding extremes
• noun a change for the better
• noun the action of lessening in severity or intensity
• noun the trait of avoiding excesses