MEANING
The relationship in which one condition or event helps produce another.
Use it for
explaining outcomes; distinguishing correlation from cause; assessing interventionsSeparate an observed association from a claim about what produces change.
Words that belong together
- establish causality
- direction of causality
- causal inference
On the page
The survey identifies an association but cannot establish causality.
Reverse causality may explain why the two measures move together.
An account of causality must explain how the proposed mechanism operates.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- causality
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Usage notes
Primary category: academic. Usually uncountable. Association alone does not establish causality; temporal order, confounding, and mechanisms matter. Several causes may operate together. Usually uncountable in the recorded sense; no ordinary plural. Derived family (not inflections): causal, causally.
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