declaration

noun7

1. •
   An emphatic or formal act of saying, telling or asserting something, by speech or writing; a decisive assertion or proclamation.

   • The weather was not tempting enough to draw the two others from their pencil and their book, in spite of Marianne's declaration that the day would be lastingly fair […]. — 1811
2. •
   The act or process of declaring.
3. •
   The act, by the captain of a batting side, of declaring an innings closed.
4. •
   A list of items for various legal purposes, e.g. customs declaration.
5. •
   The specification of an object, such as a variable or function, establishing its existence but not necessarily describing its contents.
6. •
   In common law, the formal document specifying plaintiff's cause of action, including the facts necessary to sustain a proper cause of action, and to advise the defendant of the grounds upon which he is being sued.
7. •
   (no longer used) Specifically, a declaration of love.

   • I went to Miss Mills's, fraught with a declaration. — 1850