The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cessation \Ces*sa"tion\ (s[e^]s*s[=a]"sh[u^]n), n. [F.
   cessation, L. cessatio, fr. cessare. See Cease.]
   A ceasing or discontinuance, as of action, whether temporary
   or final; a stop; as, a cessation of the war.
   [1913 Webster]

         The temporary cessation of the papal iniquities.
                                                  --Motley.
   [1913 Webster]

         The day was yearly observed for a festival by cessation
         from labor.                              --Sir J.
                                                  Hayward.
   [1913 Webster]

   Cessation of arms (Mil.), an armistice, or truce, agreed to
      by the commanders of armies, to give time for a
      capitulation, or for other purposes.

   Syn: Stop; rest; stay; pause; discontinuance; intermission;
        interval; respite; interruption; recess; remission.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

cessation
    n 1: a stopping; "a cessation of the thunder" [syn: cessation,
         surcease]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

124 Moby Thesaurus words for "cessation":
   Z, abandonment, abeyance, abjuration, abjurement, absentation,
   apodosis, breach, break, caesura, casting away, catastrophe, cease,
   ceasing, close, closing, coda, cold storage, conclusion,
   consummation, crack of doom, culmination, curtain, curtains,
   dead set, dead stand, dead stop, deadlock, death, decease, decline,
   denouement, desistance, destination, destiny, desuetude,
   discontinuance, disuse, doom, dying down, ebb, ebbing, effect, end,
   end point, ending, envoi, epilogue, eschatology, evacuation,
   expiration, fate, final solution, final twitch, final words,
   finale, finality, finis, finish, fissure, forbearance, forsaking,
   full stop, gap, goal, halt, hiatus, homestretch, interim,
   intermission, interruption, interval, izzard, jettison,
   jettisoning, lacuna, lapse, last, last breath, last gasp, last lap,
   last round, last stage, last things, last trumpet, last words,
   latter end, leaving, letup, lock, lull, nonexercise, omega, pause,
   payoff, period, peroration, pulling out, quietus, relinquishment,
   renouncement, renunciation, resignation, resolution, resting place,
   stand, standstill, stillstand, stop, stoppage, stopping place,
   subsidence, suspension, swan song, term, terminal, termination,
   terminus, throwing overboard, waiver, wane, waning, windup,
   withdrawal