declaration

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An emphatic or formal act of saying, telling or asserting something, by speech or writing; a decisive assertion or proclamation.

   “The weather was not tempting enough to draw the two others from their pencil and their book, in spite of Marianne's declaration that the day would be lastingly fair […].”

2. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Specifically, a declaration of love.

   “I went to Miss Mills's, fraught with a declaration.”

   “He blushed a great deal when the others chaffed him for his obvious preference. He made the first declaration in his life to Fräulein Hedwig, but unfortunately it was an accident […].”

3. (countable, uncountable)A list of items for various legal purposes, e.g. customs declaration.
4. (countable, uncountable)The act or process of declaring.
5. (countable, uncountable)The act, by the captain of a batting side, of declaring an innings closed.
6. (countable, uncountable)In common law, the formal document specifying plaintiff's cause of action, including the facts necessary to sustain a proper cause of action, and to advise the defendant of the grounds upon which he is being sued.
7. (countable, uncountable)The specification of an object, such as a variable or function, establishing its existence but not necessarily describing its contents.