causality

noun

cau·​sal·​i·​ty kȯ-ˈza-lə-tē 

plural causalities

1

: a causal quality or agency

2

: the relation between a cause and its effect or between regularly correlated events or phenomena

Synonyms

• antecedent
• causation
• cause
• occasion
• reason

Examples of causality in a Sentence

Scientists found no causality between the events.

a supreme being is a being that, by definition, has no causality of its own

Recent Examples on the Web

Get Citation Request Reprint Permissions The mass causality terrorist attacks in Paris and now in Brussels underscore an unsettling truth: Jihadists pose a greater threat to France and Belgium than to the rest of Europe. —William McCants, Foreign Affairs, 24 Mar. 2016

Correlation analysis does not infer causality here. —Mark Carey, The Athletic, 13 Mar. 2025

Analyst Adam Hotchkiss labeled the company a leader in the cloud modernization for the property and causality insurance sector. —Brian Evans, CNBC, 23 Jan. 2025

Tregenza’s agile camera connects characters to one another, linking actions in suspenseful chains of causality, and rooting the drama in a sense of locale, both in intimate domestic settings and in mighty, numinous landscapes. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin causālitāt- causālitās, from Late Latin causālis causal + Latin -itāt-, -itās -ity

First Known Use

1603, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for causality

• equality
• frivolity
• sodality
• inequality
• jollity
• polity
• quality

Legal Definition

causality

noun

cau·​sal·​i·​ty kȯ-ˈza-lə-tē 

plural causalities

: the relationship between cause and effect