observation

plural observations

1. countableuncountableThe act of observing, and the fact of being observed (see observance)

   The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.

   2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146

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   But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. We began to tell her about Mohair and the cotillon, and of our point of observation from the Florentine galleried porch, and she insisted she would join us there.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

2. countableuncountableThe act of noting and recording some event; or the record of such noting.
3. countableuncountableA remark or comment.

   That's a foolish observation.

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi]

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   To observations which ourselves we make / We grow more partial for the observer's sake.

   1734, Alexander Pope, Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men

4. countableuncountableA judgement based on observing.

   This hypothesis goes by many names, including group resistence, the threshold effect, and the gender paradox. Because the hypothesis holds such wide appeal, it is worth revisiting the logic behind it. The hypothesis is built on the factual observation that fewer females than males act antisocially.

   2001 September 27, Terrie E. Moffitt, Avshalom Caspi, Michael Rutter, Phil A. Silva, Sex Differences in Antisocial Behaviour: Conduct Disorder, Delinquency, and Violence in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 151

5. countableuncountableAn evaluation conducted through observing.

   I need to do your observation before the end of the week.

6. countableuncountablePerformance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance.

   We are to procure dispensation or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances.

   1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC

7. countableuncountableA regime under which a subject is routinely observed.
8. countableuncountablestochasticsA realization of a random variable.