cause

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The producer of an effect, result, or consequence.
2. n. The one, such as a person, event, or condition, that is responsible for an action or result.
3. n. A basis for an action or response; a reason: The doctor's report gave no cause for alarm.
4. n. A goal or principle served with dedication and zeal: "the cause of freedom versus tyranny” ( Hannah Arendt).
5. n. The interests of a person or group engaged in a struggle: "The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind” ( Thomas Paine).
6. n. Law A ground for legal action.
7. n. Law A lawsuit.
8. n. A subject under debate or discussion.
9. v. To be the cause of or reason for; result in.
10. v. To bring about or compel by authority or force: The moderator invoked a rule causing the debate to be ended.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That by the power of which an event or thing is; a principle from which an effect arises; that upon which something depends per se; in general, anything which stands to something else in a real relation analogous to the mental relation of the antecedent to the consequent of a conditional proposition. Nominalist philosophers commonly hold that every effect is the result not of one but of many causes (see total cause, below); but the usual doctrine is that the effect is an abstract element of a thing or event, while the cause is an ab-stract element of an antecedent event. Four kinds of causes are recognized by Aristotelians: the material, formal, efficient, and final cause. Material cause is that which gives being to the thing, the matter by the de termination of which it is constituted; formal cause, that which gives the thing its characteristics, the form or determination by which the matter becomes the thing; efficient cause, an external cause preceding its effect in time, and distinguished from material and formal cause by being external to that which it causes, and from the end or final cause in being that by which something is made or done, and not merely that for the sake of which it is made or done; final cause, an external cause following after that which it determines (called the means), the end for which the effect exists. Other divisions of causes are as follows: subordinate or second cause, one which is itself caused by something else; first cause, that which is not caused by anything else; proximate or immediate cause, one between which and the effect no other cause intervenes, or, in law, that from which the effect might be expected to follow without the concurrence of any unusual circumstances; remote cause, the opposite of proximate cause; total cause, the aggregate of all the antecedents which suffice to bring about the event; partial cause, something which tends to bring about an effect, but only in conjunction with other causes; emanative cause, that which by its mere existence determines the effect; active cause, that which brings about the effect by an action or operation, termed the causation; immanent cause, that which briugs about some effect within itself, as the mind calling up an image; transient cause, that whose effect lies outside itself; free cause, that which is self-determined and free to act or not act: opposed to necessary cause; principal cause, that upon which the effect mainly depends; instrumental cause, a cause subservient to the principal cause. The above are the chief distinctions of the Aristotelians. The physicians, following Galen, recognized three kinds of causes, the procatarctic, proégumenal, and synectic. The procatarctic cause is an antecedent condition of things outside of the principal cause, facilitating the production of the effect; the proëgumenal cause is that within the principal cause which either predisposes or directly excites it to action; and the synectic, containing, or continent cause is the essence of the disease itself considered as the cause of the symptoms; thus typhoid fever might be referred to as the continent cause of ocher-stools or a quickened pulse. Other varieties are the occasional cause (see occasionalism); moral cause, the person inciting the agent to action; objective cause, the ideas which excite the imagination of the agent; and sufficient cause, one which suffices to bring about the effect (see sufficient reason, under reason).
2. n. Specifically An antecedent upon which an effect follows according to a law of nature; an efficient cause. The common conception of a cause, as producing an effect similar to itself at a later time and without essential reference to any third factor, is at variance with the established principles of mechanics. Two successive positions of a system must be known, in addition to the law of the force, before a position can be predicted; but the common idea of a cause is that of a single antecedent determining a consequent of the same nature. Moreover, the action of a force is strictly contemporaneous with it and comes to an end with it; and no known law of nature coördinates events separated by an interval of time.
3. n. The reason or motive for mental action or decision; ground for action in general.
4. n. In law, a legal proceeding between adverse parties; a case for judicial decision. See case, 5.
5. n. In a general sense, any subject of question or debate; a subject of special interest or concern; business; affair.
6. n. Advantage; interest; sake.
7. n. That side of a question which an individual or party takes up; that object to which the efforts of a person or party are directed.
8. To make; force; compel; with an infinitive after the object: as, the storm caused him to seek shelter.
9. To show cause; give reasons.

Wiktionary

1. n. The source or reason of an event or action
2. n. A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends.
3. v. To set off an event or action.
4. v. To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. That which produces or effects a result; that from which anything proceeds, and without which it would not exist.
2. n. That which is the occasion of an action or state; ground; reason; motive.
3. n. obsolete Sake; interest; advantage.
4. n. (Law) A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.
5. n. Any subject of discussion or debate; matter; question; affair in general.
6. n. The side of a question, which is espoused, advocated, and upheld by a person or party; a principle which is advocated; that which a person or party seeks to attain.
7. v. To effect as an agent; to produce; to be the occasion of; to bring about; to bring into existence; to make; -- usually followed by an infinitive, sometimes by that with a finite verb.
8. v. obsolete To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.
9. conj. Abbreviation of because.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a justification for something existing or happening
2. n. any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results
3. n. events that provide the generative force that is the origin of something
4. n. a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy
5. v. give rise to; cause to happen or occur, not always intentionally
6. n. a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end
7. v. cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner