Meaning & use
causation
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Meanings
noununcountable
The link between a cause and its effect, where one event brings about another.
Grammar: Uncountable: the study of causation.
Patterns
- causation between A and B
- proof of causation
The study could not prove causation between the diet and the illness.
Courts require proof of causation in injury cases.
Correlation is not the same as causation.
noununcountablerare
The act of causing something to happen.
Grammar: Formal and rare in everyday talk.
The causation of the accident was a loose wheel.
Philosophers debate the nature of causation.
Common combinations
- prove causation
- It is hard to prove causation from one survey.
- correlation and causation
- Do not confuse correlation and causation.
- legal causation
- Legal causation links the act to the harm.
- chain of causation
- A single mistake broke the chain of causation.
- establish causation
- Researchers tried to establish causation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cause
- Cause is the thing that produces the effect; causation is the relationship.
- causality
- Causality is a close synonym used mainly in science and philosophy for the principle itself.
- origin
- Origin names where something started, not the link between events.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: causation or correlation?
causation vs correlation
Correlation means two things happen together; causation means one produces the other.
Practice
Ice cream sales and sunburn both rise in summer, but that does not show ____ between them.
Choose one answer.
Two trends can coincide without one causing the other. Causation is the right term for cause and effect.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “causation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.