isolation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of isolating.
2. n. The quality or condition of being isolated. See Synonyms at solitude.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The state of being isolated or alone.
2. n. Specifically, removal from communication or contact with others; also, the condition of being so removed. An isolation ward, hospital, or camp is a ward, hospital, or camp in which isolation of the sick or of those who have been exposed to infection is secured.
3. n. In psychology, the process whereby one selects a certain quality of an object for consideration, to the neglect of other qualities; selection by attention.

Wiktionary

1. n. The state of being isolated, detached, or separated.
2. n. The act of isolating.
3. n. diplomacy, of a country The state of not having diplomatic relations with other countries (either with most or all other countries, or with specified other countries).
4. n. chemistry The obtaining of an element from one of its compounds, or of a compound from a mixture
5. n. medicine The separation of a patient, suffering from a contagious disease, from contact with others
6. n. computing a database property that determines when and how changes made in one transaction are visible to other concurrent transactions

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of isolating, or the state of being isolated; insulation; separation; loneliness.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a state of separation between persons or groups
2. n. a feeling of being disliked and alone
3. n. a country's withdrawal from international politics
4. n. the act of isolating something; setting something apart from others
5. n. (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which memory of an unacceptable act or impulse is separated from the emotion originally associated with it