causation

English

Etymology

From cause +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôz, IPA^(key): /kɔːˈzeɪ.ʃən/, [kʰoːˈz̥eɪ.ʃən]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɔˈzeɪ.ʃən/, [kʰɒːˈz̥eɪ.ʃən]
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /kɑˈzeɪ.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

causation (countable and uncountable, plural causations)

1. The act of causing.
2. The act or agency by which an effect is produced.
   • 1837, William Whewell, “Earliest Stages of Optics”, in History of the Inductive Sciences, from the Earliest to the Present Times. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, book II (History of the Physical Sciences in Ancient Greece), page 100:

     Aristotle's views led him to try to describe the kind of causation by which vision is produced, instead of the laws by which it is exercised; and the attempt consisted, as in other subjects, of indistinct principles, and ill-combined facts.

3. Cause and effect, considered as a system.

   Synonym: causality

Derived terms

• causational
• reverse causation

 

Translations

act of causing

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 原因 (zh) (yuányīn), 誘因／诱因 (zh) (yòuyīn), 起因 (zh) (qǐyīn)

• Finnish: aiheuttaminen (fi)
• French: causation (fr) f
• German: Ursache (de) f
• Hindi: कार्यकारण (kāryakāraṇ)
• Korean: 원인제공 (woninjegong)
• Maori: whakataenga, pūtaketanga
• Russian: причи́нная связь f (pričínnaja svjazʹ)
• Spanish: causación f

agency by which an effect is produced

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 原因 (zh) (yuányīn), 誘因／诱因 (zh) (yòuyīn), 起因 (zh) (qǐyīn)

• Finnish: syysuhde (fi), syy-yhteys (fi), syy-seuraussuhde (fi), kausaliteetti (fi), kausaatio
• Hindi: कार्यकारण (kāryakāraṇ), कारणता (kāraṇtā)
• Maori: whakataenga
• Russian: please add this translation if you can

causality — see causality

See also

• ætiology, aetiology, etiology

Further reading

• “causation”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “causation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.