exception

[ik-sep-shuh n] /ɪkˈsɛp ʃən/
noun
1.
the act of excepting or the fact of being excepted.
2.
something excepted; an instance or case not conforming to the general rule.
3.
an adverse criticism, especially on a particular point; opposition of opinion; objection; demurral:
a statement liable to exception.
4.
Law.
  1. an objection, as to a ruling of the court in the course of a trial.
  2. a notation that an objection is preserved for purposes of appeal:
    saving an exception.
Idioms
5.
take exception,
  1. to make an objection; demur:
    They took exception to several points in the contract.
  2. to take offense:
    She took exception to what I said about her brother.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English excepcioun < Latin exceptiōn (stem of exceptiō), equivalent to except(us) (see except1) + -iōn- -ion
Related forms
exceptionless, adjective
preexception, noun
Examples from the web for exception
  • No such exception exists in the case of selling rights to clothing companies to reproduce team logos.
  • The team propose the theory that such yearlings are truly, in this case, the exception that proves the rule.
  • Yet the commissioners seem almost to have accepted the case for preserving the rule without exception.
  • Almost without exception, they wore nice sweaters.
  • Mondays are often hectic in the casket business, and today is no exception.
  • No matter the size of your wallet these days, pinching pennies has become more the rule than the exception for American families.
  • It can be hard to track who in Hollywood is hooking up and breaking up, and this week holds no exception.
  • The one exception really needs to be noted, so it can be avoided.
  • All white wines should be in screw caps with maybe the exception on a really good Riesling that has a chance of aging.
  • With the exception of the subwoofer, the speakers should be at ear level.
British Dictionary definitions for exception

exception

/ɪkˈsɛpʃən/
noun
1.
the act of excepting or fact of being excepted; omission
2.
anything excluded from or not in conformance with a general rule, principle, class, etc
3.
criticism, esp when it is adverse; objection
4.
(law) (formerly) a formal objection in the course of legal proceedings
5.
(law) a clause or term in a document that restricts the usual legal effect of the document
6.
take exception
  1. (usually foll by to) to make objections (to); demur (at)
  2. (often foll by at) to be offended (by); be resentful (at)
Word Origin and History for exception
n.

late 14c., from Anglo-French excepcioun, Old French excepcion, from Latin exceptionem (nominative exceptio), noun of action from past participle stem of excipere (see except).

The exception that proves the rule is from law: exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis, "the exception proves the rule in cases not excepted;" exception here being "action of excepting" someone or something from the rule in question, not the person or thing that is excepted. To take exception is from excipere being used in Roman law as a modern attorney would say objection.

exception in Technology

An error condition that changes the normal flow of control in a program. An exception may be generated ("raised") by hardware or software. Hardware exceptions include reset, interrupt or a signal from a memory management unit. Exceptions may be generated by the arithmetic logic unit or floating-point unit for numerical errors such as divide by zero, overflow or underflow or instruction decoding errors such as privileged, reserved, trap or undefined instructions. Software exceptions are even more varied and the term could be applied to any kind of error checking which alters the normal behaviour of the program.
(1994-10-31)
Idioms and Phrases with exception

exception

In addition to the idioms beginning with exception
exception proves the rule, the
also see: