Causation

How to spell causation

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce causation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does causation mean?

1. nounThe relationship between an action or event and the effect it produces; the act of causing something.

Causation in a sentence

• The study showed correlation but could not prove causation between the two factors.

• In the lawsuit, the plaintiff had to establish causation between the defect and the injury.

Where does causation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin causa, which meant a reason, a motive, or a legal case, and is the same root that gives English the everyday word 'cause'. From causa Latin formed causatio, meaning the act of giving a reason or bringing something about, and this passed into English in the late Middle Ages, roughly the 1400s, partly by way of Old French. For centuries it carried the broad sense of producing an effect, but it became especially precise in two adult arenas: philosophy and science, where it names the relationship between a cause and the effect it produces, and law, where proving causation links a defendant's act to the harm suffered. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: the '-sa-' is pronounced like 'zay', yet it is written with an 's', and the ending is the familiar '-ation' rather than anything more exotic. Remembering that it is simply 'cause' with '-ation' attached keeps the spelling honest.

How the word is built

• caus- (from Latin causa: cause, reason)
• -ation (noun suffix: the action or process)