Causal

How to spell causal

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce causal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does causal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to, expressing, or involving a cause and its effect.

Causal in a sentence

• The study found no causal link between the diet and the illness.

• Correlation alone does not prove a causal relationship between the two events.

Where does causal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin causalis, meaning 'relating to a cause', which was built on the noun causa, meaning a cause, a reason, or even a legal case brought before a court. In Roman usage causa covered both the everyday sense of why something happens and the formal sense of a lawsuit, and that legal flavour still survives in English words such as 'accuse' and 'because'. The adjective entered English in the late 1400s through scholarly and philosophical writing, where thinkers needed a precise term for the link between a cause and its effect. The spelling stays close to the Latin root, keeping the c and the s sound rendered as a z, which is exactly why it is so easily muddled with the unrelated word 'casual'. Remembering that 'causal' simply means 'to do with a cause' anchors the spelling: the word 'cause' sits whole inside it, with only -al added on the end.

How the word is built

• caus- (from Latin causa: cause, reason)
• -al (adjective suffix: relating to)