noun
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the act or fact of causing; the production of an effect by a cause
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the relationship of cause and effect
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of causation
1640–50; < Medieval Latin causātiōn- (stem of causātiō ), equivalent to causāt ( us ) (past participle of causāre to cause) ( Latin caus ( a ) cause + -ātus -ate 1 ) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Use the noun causation to talk about the process of causing something to happen. If you try to sue your brother for your bike accident, you’ll have to prove causation. It’s easy to remember what causation means if you break it apart. Most of the word cause is in there, plus -ation, which you might recognize as a noun suffix that describes an action or process. So causation is the action of causing something. It’s a formal word, and you'll often hear it come up in legal or scientific contexts. If you become a research biologist, you might do experiments to determine causation of a particular kind of cancer.
Vocabulary lists containing causation
The ACT Math Test: Statistics and Probability
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Statistics and Probability
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The SAT Math Test: Problem Solving and Data Analysis
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The authors also note that reverse causation is possible, meaning healthier people may simply be more able to attend cultural events.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
With social media, it may be difficult to prove causation for an individual, but once we consider population-level research, the link is undeniable, as it was with tobacco.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
I was careful not to formally assert the level of causation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026
He explained that language emphasizing causation over correlation and other results biases is a problem in scientific research at-large, but in his opinion, this is an egregious example.
From Salon ● Mar. 11, 2026
A related question is: What is God’s role in causation?
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The city of L.A. has still not declared an emergency regarding our untenable and inhumane homelessness crisis, nor taken significant steps to address the causations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2021
Deisseroth says his laboratory research informs the psychiatric patient care that he continues to give, yet many of the landmark studies are about causations and chemical pathways in genetically modified mice, not humans.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2021
Details of the Arizona tragedy will emerge and provide a fuller picture of the factors and causations.
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2011
IN their precise tracings-out and subtile causations, the strongest and fieriest emotions of life defy all analytical insight.
From Pierre; or The Ambiguities by Herman Melville
Roads were too bad, cities too difficult of access, travellers too rare, books too incapable of transmission, for any solution which should explain the chain of coincidences into a chain of natural causations.
From The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 2 by Alexander H. (Alexander Hay) Japp
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
