acceptation

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The meaning (sense) in which a word or expression is understood, or generally received.

   “The term is to be used according to its usual acceptation.”

   “My words, in common Acceptation, / Could never give this Provocation”

   “In its most proper acceptation, theory means the completed result of philosophical induction from experience.”

   “Farce, indeed, is a term which has been used by literary historians in two rather different shades of meaning. In one acceptation, derived from its use as applied to Maître Pathelin and other examples of fiteenth-century French dramatic humour, it does not so much connote something other than comedy, as a variety of comedy itself. It is a matter of temper and milieu.”

   “Sn may in the latter case designate the uncle, the cousin, or the nephew. None of these scholars, however, has dealt extensively with the third and largest acceptation of the word sn, namely its metaphorical one.”

2. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Acceptance; reception; favorable reception or regard; the state of being acceptable.

   “Finally, ſome things although not ſo required of neceſſity, that to leave them undone excludeth from Salvation, are notwithſtanding of so great dignity and acceptation with God, that moſt ample reward in Heaven is laid up for them.”

   “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”

   “The acceptation of the anti-hegemony clause – President Carter in May 1978 had encouraged the Japanese to agree to it – compelled the Japanese government to confess publicly what everybody knew: omnidirectional diplomacy notwithstanding, Japan was more favourably disposed towards China than the Soviet Union.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The active divine decision to approve an act or circumstance, held by Scotists to be necessary to render it meritorious.

   “This does not, however, mean that the habit of created charity may be regarded as the formal cause of divine acceptation, considered from the standpoint of the one who elicits the act of acceptation (i.e., God), as this must be regarded as lying within the divine will itself.”