Noun

A just valuation or estimate of merit, worth, weight, etc.; recognition of excellence.

* 2014 , Ian Jack, " Is this the end of Britishness", The Guardian , 16 September 2014:

The English, until relatively recently, seem to have imagined “English” and “British” to be interchangeable, as if Britain was just a bigger England. Our dualism gave us a better appreciation of the nation-state we lived in, though if Britain was a “nation” as well as a “state”, where did that leave Scotland?

Accurate perception; true estimation; as, an appreciation of the difficulties before us; an appreciation of colors.

His foreboding showed his appreciation of Henry's character. —J. R. Green.

A rise in value;—opposed to depreciation.

Noun

(en-noun)

(label) Mental focus.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}

* , chapter=3

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, volume=100, issue=2, page=87, magazine=(American Scientist)

, title= The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

(label) An action or remark expressing concern for or interest in someone or something, especially romantic interest.

* 1818 , (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley), (Frankenstein); or, the Modern Prometheus , ch. 3,

She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper.

* 1910 , (Stephen Leacock), " ,

For some time past I have been the recipient of very marked attentions from a young lady.

A state of alertness in the standing position.