the exception that proves the rule

exception | American Dictionary

exception
noun[ C/U ]
us/ɪkˈsep·ʃən/
something that is not included, or the action of not including something:
[ C ]We don’t usually accept late applications, but since you were so sick I’ll make an exception (= do something different from what is usual).
[ C ]Teen movies usually aren’t very good, but this one is an exception to the rule.
[ U ]Every apple in the box, without exception, was rotten.

exception | Business English

exception
noun[ C ]
uk /ɪkˈsepʃən/us
someone or something that is not included in a rule, group, or list, or that does not behave in the expected way:
Most of these states have moderate property taxes; Arizona's very high business property taxes are an exception.
The condition covering cotton textiles was agreed as an exception to the general trade rules.
Carriage is free on all orders with the exception of urgent deliveries.
Businesses exist to make a profit, and banks are no exception.
IT
a problem or special condition that stops a computer program from processing information in the normal way:
The system identifies the point in the program where the exception occurred.
INSURANCE (alsoexclusion)
a risk that is not included in an insurance policy:
Medical insurance has more exceptions than most types of insurance.
LAW, PROPERTY
a condition in a property agreement that limits an owner's rights
COMMERCE
a note on a bill of lading stating that goods that have been received to be sent somewhere are damaged or less than the correct quantity
 make an exception
to not treat something or someone according to the usual rules:
Most countries that ban the use of mobile phones while driving make an exception for hands-free phones.

Examples of exception

exception
With a few exceptions, returns to households from wildlife are generally less than $30.00 per annum.
Such railway towns were the exception rather than the rule in terms of place of residence for railway workers.
There are two types of exceptions to this generalisation.
It is unclear if these exceptions represent genuine cases of non-colocalization or are due to the low levels of labelling observed in some cells.
These exceptions consist of evident misprints which it has been thought useless to preserve.
Indeed, in most cases, major crops were divided in half, but with a lot of exceptions.
Individual exceptions may be due not to some as yet unknown elements of usage which have not yet been discovered but rather to dialectal differences.
Such damage produces a greater impairment on reading exception words than regular words.
More specifically, consider the empirical observation that the exceptions tend to be high-frequency words.
It has been carefully edited, with detailed and extensive annotation, with one inexplicable but fortunately not serious exception.
The examples provided of 'rituals' enacted in relation to antiquities are the exceptions rather than the norm.
In other words, ellipsis of all components, with the exception of the explicit ar ticulation of the acceptance, maximizes the implementation of the preferred format.
This structure is very elegant with one glaring exception.
But why is such television of political concern and formal innovation and dramatic entertainment the exception?
And perhaps there are still others who are confident that the exceptions are only apparent.
See all examples of exception
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations withexception

exception

These are words often used in combination with exception.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

apparent exception
True exception is to be distinguished from apparentexception, or phonological opacity.
exception handler
Note, however, that the exception handler for dealing with terms of the wrong form is kept close to the term destructor function.
exception handling
Since the exception handling is (so far) isolated to a few programs and otherwise discouraged, this uncleanness is almost acceptable.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with exception