cause and effect

noun

plural causes and effects
: the direct relationship between an action or event and its consequence or result
There was an accident, so traffic was at a standstill. The gravitational pull of the moon causes the tides of the ocean. I stuck to a training plan, so I finished my race strong. Cause and effect is a concept we all learn in grade school, and we see it play out in hundreds of circumstances every day.Ben Gibson
"Human nature is to look for cause and effect," says Robert Baloh, professor of neurology and head and neck surgery at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. … "I see this daily when I see patients. They're all sure something they ate or something they did caused their problem and their symptoms."Frank Bures
… focused on observable and verifiable causes and effects in the natural world …Rafi Eis

Examples of cause and effect in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
My medical invoices had descriptive line items and when placed next to photos of the mouldy air-conditioning units, told a plain story of cause and effect. Melissa Kenny, refinery29.com, 30 Oct. 2024 But deep learning is fundamentally blind to cause and effect. Will Knight, WIRED, 8 Oct. 2019 But after living through the war firsthand, one artist came to the conclusion that the cause and effect should be flipped. Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 25 Oct. 2024 The study design could not demonstrate cause and effect, however, but only correlation. Blake Murdoch, Scientific American, 18 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for cause and effect 

Word History

First Known Use

1599, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cause and effect was in 1599

Dictionary Entries Near cause and effect

Cite this Entry

“Cause and effect.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cause%20and%20effect. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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