The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Animation \An`i*ma"tion\, n. [L. animatio, fr. animare.]
   1. The act of animating, or giving life or spirit; the state
      of being animate or alive.
      [1913 Webster]

            The animation of the same soul quickening the whole
            frame.                                --Bp. Hall.
      [1913 Webster]

            Perhaps an inanimate thing supplies me, while I am
            speaking, with whatever I possess of animation.
                                                  --Landor.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The state of being lively, brisk, or full of spirit and
      vigor; vivacity; spiritedness; as, he recited the story
      with great animation.
      [1913 Webster]

   Suspended animation, temporary suspension of the vital
      functions, as in persons nearly drowned.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Liveliness; vivacity; spirit; buoyancy; airiness;
        sprightliness; promptitude; enthusiasm; ardor;
        earnestness; energy. See Liveliness.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

animation
    n 1: the condition of living or the state of being alive; "while
         there's life there's hope"; "life depends on many chemical
         and physical processes" [syn: animation, life,
         living, aliveness]
    2: the property of being able to survive and grow; "the vitality
       of a seed" [syn: animation, vitality]
    3: quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous
       [syn: animation, spiritedness, invigoration, brio,
       vivification]
    4: the activity of giving vitality and vigour to something [syn:
       vivification, invigoration, animation]
    5: the making of animated cartoons
    6: general activity and motion [syn: liveliness, animation]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

148 Moby Thesaurus words for "animation":
   activity, actuation, afflatus, aggravation, agitation, alacrity,
   animal spirits, animate existence, animating spirit, animus,
   anxiety, anxiousness, appetite, ardency, ardor, arousal, arousing,
   avidity, avidness, being alive, birth, breathless impatience,
   breeziness, brio, briskness, bubbliness, capersomeness,
   cheerful readiness, coltishness, dash, direction, divine afflatus,
   dynamism, eagerness, ebullience, effervescence, elan,
   electrification, energizing, energy, enlivening, enlivenment,
   enthusiasm, esprit, exacerbation, exasperation, excitation,
   excitement, exhilaration, existence, exuberance, fervor, fire,
   firing, fomentation, forwardness, friskiness, frolicsomeness,
   gaiety, galvanization, gamesomeness, gayness, genius, glow, gust,
   gusto, having life, heartiness, immortality, impatience,
   impetuosity, impetus, incitement, infection, inflammation,
   influence, infuriation, infusion, inner-direction, inspiration,
   intensity, invigoration, irritation, joie de vivre, keen desire,
   keenness, lathering up, life, lifetime, liveliness, living,
   long life, longevity, lustiness, mettle, motivation, moving,
   moving spirit, moxie, oomph, other-direction, pep, peppiness,
   perkiness, pertness, perturbation, piss and vinegar, pizzazz,
   playfulness, prompting, promptness, provocation, quickening,
   quickness, readiness, revitalization, revival, robustness,
   rollicksomeness, rompishness, skittishness, spirit, spiritedness,
   spirits, sportiveness, sprightliness, spriteliness, steaming up,
   stimulation, stimulus, stirring, stirring up, verve, viability,
   vigor, vim, vitality, vitalization, vivaciousness, vivacity,
   vivification, warmth, whipping up, working up, zest, zestfulness,
   zing, zip



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

animation

    The creation of artificial moving images.

   Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.graphics.animation.  FAQ
   (ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/comp.graphics.animation).

   (1995-11-24)