acceptation

Noun

acceptation (countable and uncountable, plural acceptations)

1. 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 Provocation1731 January 30, John Gay, “Fable: The Dog and the Fox: To a Lawyer”, in Caleb D'Anvers (Nicholas Amhurst), editor, The Craftsman, volume 7, page 233
2. (archaic) 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.1676, Richard Hooker, Izaak Walton, “The Second Book of Eccleſiaſtical Polity”, in The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine, Mr. Richard Hooker, in Eight Books of Eccleſiaſtical Polity, page 122
   • 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.1769, King James Bible: 1 Timothy
3. 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.1998 [1986], Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 148