observation, observance Definition

1a. The act of noticing or watching;

Thesaurus: perception, examination, inspection, once-over, study, surveillance.
1b. The state of being observed or watched.
2. The ability to observe; perception.
3. A remark or comment.

Thesaurus: remark, note, comment, notice, opinion, reading, reflection, review, thought, utterance.
4. The noting of behaviour, symptoms or phenomena, etc as they occur, especially before analysis or diagnosis.

Example: keep the patient under observation
5. The result of such observing.

To observe the position of the Sun or stars in order to calculate one's geographical position.

○ These two nouns correspond to different meanings of observe.

○ Observance relates to sense 4 of observe and is used mainly about laws, rules, rights and principles, especially religious principles:

○ Observation relates to senses 1, 2 and 3 of observe and is used more generally:

○ Observation also has the special meaning ‘remark' (in sense 3), eg:

○ You will occasionally see observation used to mean observance, but this is not a typical meaning and is best avoided:

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