Causation

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kɔːˈzeɪ.ʃən/

Definitions

1. The relationship between an event or action and the effect it produces, where one thing directly brings about another
2. The principle that establishes a connection between occurrences, indicating how one event leads to the outcome of another
3. The concept that describes the linkage in which an action or event initiates a result, thus influencing other events or states

Etymology: "Causation" is a plain formation: the noun "cause" with the Latin-derived suffix "-ation," which turns a verb or noun into a noun of action or state. The base "cause" came into English from Old French "cause," itself from Latin "causa," meaning reason, grounds, or legal case. The Latin noun carried a sense of a judicial case or lawsuit, and that legal idea of a matter being argued before a court is the root from which the modern sense of "reason for an effect" grew. The suffix does the work here. English has long used "-ation" to form abstract nouns denoting a process or its result, as in "creation" or "formation." Attaching it to "cause" produced a word for the relationship itself, the act or fact of one thing producing another, rather than for any single cause.

Synonyms: cause, origination, source

Antonyms: effect, result