The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Exception \Ex*cep"tion\ ([e^]k*s[e^]p"sh[u^]n), n. [L. exceptio:
   cf. F. exception.]
   1. The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction
      by taking out something which would otherwise be included,
      as in a class, statement, rule.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is excepted or taken out from others; a person,
      thing, or case, specified as distinct, or not included;
      as, almost every general rule has its exceptions.
      [1913 Webster]

            Such rare exceptions, shining in the dark,
            Prove, rather than impeach, the just remark.
                                                  --Cowper.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: Often with to.
         [1913 Webster]

               That proud exception to all nature's laws.
                                                  --Pope.
         [1913 Webster]

   3. (Law) An objection, oral or written, taken, in the course
      of an action, as to bail or security; or as to the
      decision of a judge, in the course of a trail, or in his
      charge to a jury; or as to lapse of time, or scandal,
      impertinence, or insufficiency in a pleading; also, as in
      conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts
      something before granted. --Burrill.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. An objection; cavil; dissent; disapprobation; offense;
      cause of offense; -- usually followed by to or against.
      [1913 Webster]

            I will never answer what exceptions they can have
            against our account [relation].       --Bentley.
      [1913 Webster]

            He . . . took exception to the place of their
            burial.                               --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

            She takes exceptions at your person.  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   Bill of exceptions (Law), a statement of exceptions to the
      decision, or instructions of a judge in the trial of a
      cause, made for the purpose of putting the points decided
      on record so as to bring them before a superior court or
      the full bench for review.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

exception
    n 1: a deliberate act of omission; "with the exception of the
         children, everyone was told the news" [syn: exception,
         exclusion, elision]
    2: an instance that does not conform to a rule or
       generalization; "all her children were brilliant; the only
       exception was her last child"; "an exception tests the rule"
    3: grounds for adverse criticism; "his authority is beyond
       exception"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

222 Moby Thesaurus words for "exception":
   abjuration, abjurement, abnormality, adverse criticism, allowance,
   amazement, animadversion, anomaly, answer, argument, aspersion,
   astonishing thing, astonishment, bad notices, bad press, ban, bar,
   barring, beef, bitch, blockade, blockage, boycott,
   call into question, captiousness, carping, cavil, caviling,
   censoriousness, cession, challenge, charter, chucking,
   chucking out, circumscription, complaint, compunction, concession,
   condition, contempt, contradiction, conversation piece,
   counterstatement, criticism, curio, curiosity, debarment,
   debarring, declination, declining, defense, demarcation,
   demonstration, demur, demurrer, denial, departure, despisal,
   despising, diplomatic immunity, disagree with, disapproval,
   discard, discharge, disclamation, discounting, dismissal,
   disownment, disregard, embargo, exclusion, exemption,
   expostulation, extenuating circumstances, faultfinding, flak,
   franchise, freak, gazingstock, grain of salt, grant, grievance,
   grievance committee, hairsplitting, hedge, hedging, hit,
   home thrust, hostile criticism, howl, hypercriticalness,
   hypercriticism, ignoring, immunity, improbability, imputation,
   inadmissibility, indignation meeting, injunction, irregularity,
   kick, knock, legislative immunity, liberty, license, limitation,
   lockout, march, marvel, marvelment, mental reservation, miracle,
   modification, museum piece, nagging, narrowing, niggle, niggling,
   nit, nit-picking, nonacceptance, nonadmission, nonapproval,
   nonconsideration, nonesuch, nonviolent protest, object to,
   objection, obloquy, oddity, omission, oppose, overcriticalness,
   passing by, patent, peculiarity, permission, pestering,
   pettifogging, phenomenon, picketing, plea, pleading, preclusion,
   priggishness, privilege, prodigiosity, prodigy, prohibition,
   protest, protest demonstration, protestation, provision, proviso,
   putting away, putting out, qualification, qualm, quibble,
   quibbling, quirk, quite a thing, rally, rap, rarity, rebuff,
   rebuttal, recantation, reflection, refusal, refutation, rejection,
   release, relegation, remonstrance, remonstration, renouncement,
   reply, reproachfulness, repudiation, repulse, reservation,
   response, restriction, riposte, salvo, scouting, scruple,
   sensation, sight, sit-in, slam, something else, special case,
   special demurrer, special pleading, special treatment, specialness,
   specification, spectacle, spurning, squawk, statement of defense,
   stipulation, strange thing, stricture, strike, string, stunner,
   swipe, taboo, take exception to, taking exception, teach-in, term,
   throwing out, trichoschistism, turning out, waiver, wonder,
   wonderful thing, wonderment



The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

exception

   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)


Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

EXCEPTION, Eng. Eq. practice. Re-interrogation. 2 Benth. Ev. 208, n.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

EXCEPTION, legislation, construction. Exceptions are rules which limit the
extent of other more general rules, and render that just and proper, which
would be, on account of its generality, unjust and improper. For example, it
is a general rule that parties competent may make contracts; the rule that
they shall not make any contrary to equity, or contra bonos mores, is the
exception.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

EXCEPTION, contracts. An exception is a clause in a deed,. by which the
lessor excepts something out of that which he granted before by the deed.
     2. To make a valid exception, these things must concur: 1. The
exception must be by apt words; as, saving and excepting, &c. 2. It must be
of part of the thing previously described, and not of some other thing. 3.
It must be part of the thing only, and not of all, the greater part, or the
effect of the thing granted; an exception, therefore, in a lease, which
extends to the whole thing demised, is void. 4. It must be of such thing as
is severable from the demised premises, and hot of an inseparable incident.
5. It must be of a thing as he that accepts may have, and which properly
belongs to him. 6. It must be of a particular thing out of a general, and
not of a particular thing out of a particular thing. 7. It must be
particularly described and set forth; a lease of a tract of land, except one
acre, would be void, because that acre was not particularly described.
Woodf. Landl. and Ten. 10; Co. Litt. 47 a; Touchs. 77; 1 Shepl. R. 337;
Wright's R. 711; 3 John. R., 375 8 Conn. R. 369; 6 Pick. R. 499; 6 N. H.
Rep. 421. Exceptions against common right and general rules are construed as
strictly as possible. 1 Barton's Elem. Conv. 68.
     3. An exception differs from a reservation; the former is always a part
of the thing granted; the latter is of a thing not in esse but newly created
or reserved. An exception differs also from an explanation, which by the use
of a videlicet, proviso, &c., is allowed only to explain doubtful clauses
precedent, or to separate and distribute generals, into particulars. 3 Pick.
R. 272.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

EXCEPTION, practice, pleading. This term is used in the civil, nearly in the
same sense that the word plea has in the common law. Merl. Repert. h.t.;
Ayl. Parerg. 251.
     2. In chancery practice, it is the allegation of a party in writing,
that some pleading or proceeding in a cause is insufficient. 1 Harr. Ch. Pr.
228.
     3. Exceptions are dilatory or peremptory. Bract. lib. 5, tr. 5;
Britton, cap. 91, 92; 1 Lilly's Ab. 559. Dilatory exceptions are such as do
not tend to defeat the action, but only to retard its progress. Poth. Proc.
civ. partie 1, c. 2, s. 2, art. 1; Code of Pract. of Lo. art. 332.
Declinatory exceptions have this effect, as well as the exception of
discussion opposed by a third possessor, or by a surety in an hypothecary
action, or the exception taken in order to call in the warrantor. Id.; 7 N.
S. 282; 1 L. R. 38, 420. These exceptions must, in general, be pleaded in
limine litis before issue joined. Civ. Code of Lo. 2260; 1 N. S. 703; 2 N.
S. 389; 4 L. R. 104; 10 L. R. 546. A declinatory exception is a species of
dilatory exception, which merely declines the jurisdiction of the judge
before whom the action is brought. Code of Pr. of L. 334.
     4. Peremptory exceptions are those which tend to the dismissal of the
action. Some relate to forms, others arise from the law. Those which relate
to forms, tend to have the cause dismissed, owing to some nullities in the
proceedings. These must be pleaded in limine litis. Peremptory exceptions
founded on law, are those which, without going into the merits of the cause,
show that the plaintiff cannot maintain his action, either because it is
prescribed, or because the cause of action has been destroyed or
extinguished. These may be pleaded at any time previous to definitive
judgment. Id. art. 343, 346; Poth. Proc. Civ. partie 1, c. 2, s. 1, 2, 3.
These, in the French law, are called Fins de. non recevoir. (q.v.)
     5. By exception is also meant the objection which is made to the
decision of a judge in the course of a trial. See Bill of Exception.



The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

EXCEPTION, n.  A thing which takes the liberty to differ from other
things of its class, as an honest man, a truthful woman, etc.  "The
exception proves the rule" is an expression constantly upon the lips
of the ignorant, who parrot it from one another with never a thought
of its absurdity.  In the Latin, "_Exceptio probat regulam_" means
that the exception _tests_ the rule, puts it to the proof, not
_confirms_ it.  The malefactor who drew the meaning from this
excellent dictum and substituted a contrary one of his own exerted an
evil power which appears to be immortal.