Cause

How to spell cause

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cause

What does cause mean?

1. nounA person, thing, or event that produces an effect or gives a reason for something.
2. verbTo make something happen or bring about a result.

Cause in a sentence

• noun

  The engineer traced the cause of the fault to a loose cable.

• verb

  Heavy rain can cause delays on the morning commute.

• noun

  There was no cause for concern after the routine check.

• verb

  A small leak may cause serious damage over time.

Where does cause come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin causa, which meant a reason, a motive, or a legal case brought before a court. Roman writers used it both for the abstract grounds of an action and for the lawsuit itself, and that double life survives today in our talk of a 'just cause' and of a 'lost cause'. English borrowed it through Old French cause in the 1200s, keeping the spelling almost untouched, which is why the silent-looking 'au' is simply the original Latin vowel pair. The same causa root branches into 'because' (originally 'by cause'), 'accuse' and 'excuse', all built on the idea of a reason or a charge. Because the spelling never anglicised, the 'au' remains the small trap rather than any modern phonetic logic.

How the word is built

• caus- (from Latin causa: reason, motive)
• -e