Cause vs. Reason — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman — Updated on October 5, 2023
A cause is what produces an effect or event. A reason is the explanation or justification for an event or action.
Difference Between Cause and Reason
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A cause is typically associated with an event or situation that directly leads to a particular result or effect. On the other hand, a reason provides the underlying explanation or rationale behind why something occurred or was done.
Cause implies a direct connection and relationship between two events, where one event triggers another. Reason, however, leans more towards the realm of logic, offering an explanation or motive behind an event or action.
In many scenarios, a cause is observable and can be directly measured or assessed, like rain causing the streets to be wet. A reason might require deeper analysis or introspection, such as understanding why someone chose to carry an umbrella on a cloudy day.
While the cause can be viewed as the spark that ignites a particular outcome, the reason can be perceived as the thought process or rationale that justified a certain decision or occurrence.
It's possible for an event to have multiple causes, like various factors leading to an accident. Similarly, there can be multiple reasons behind a choice, illustrating the complexity of human decision-making.
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Comparison Chart
Nature
Directly produces an effect.
Provides an explanation or justification.
Example in Context
Rain is the cause of wet streets.
The forecast predicted rain as the reason for the umbrella.
Application
Observable and measurable event.
Often abstract, requiring thought or analysis.
Relationship
Direct connection between events.
Logical or rational link between events or decisions.
Inferences
Often concrete and tangible.
Can be subjective and based on personal beliefs.
Compare with Definitions
Cause
Cause refers to the origin of a disease or ailment.
Viruses are a common cause of illness.
Reason
Reason is the basis or motive for an action or decision.
Curiosity was her reason for joining the club.
Cause
Because.
Reason
Reason refers to the power of the mind to think logically.
Use your reason, not emotions, to solve the problem.
Cause
The producer of an effect, result, or consequence.
Reason
Reason can denote an explanation provided for an action.
He had no reason for his abrupt departure.
Cause
The one, such as a person, event, or condition, that is responsible for an action or result.
Reason
Reason means cause or explanation for an event.
The storm was the reason the event was postponed.
Cause
A basis for an action or response; a reason
The doctor's report gave no cause for alarm.
Reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic to seek truth and draw conclusions from new or existing information. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered to be a distinguishing ability possessed by humans.
Cause
A goal or principle served with dedication and zeal
“the cause of freedom versus tyranny” (Hannah Arendt).
Reason
The basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction
There are good reasons to learn a foreign language. See Usage Notes at because, why.
Cause
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).
Reason
A declaration made to explain or justify action, decision, or conviction
What reasons did she give for leaving?.
Cause
A lawsuit or criminal prosecution.
Reason
A fact or cause that explains why something exists or has occurred
The reason for the building's collapse is unknown.
Cause
The ground or basis for a lawsuit.
Reason
(Logic) A premise, usually the minor premise, of an argument.
Cause
A subject under debate or discussion.
Reason
The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence
"Most of us would like to believe that when we say something is right or wrong, we are using our powers of reason alone" (Carl Zimmer).
Cause
To be the cause of or reason for; result in.
Reason
The limit of what is reasonable
"It is a curious thing that, when a man hates or loves beyond reason, he is ready to go beyond reason to gratify his feelings" (Rudyard Kipling).
Cause
To bring about or compel by authority or force
The moderator invoked a rule causing the debate to be ended.
Reason
A normal mental state; sanity
He has lost his reason.
Cause
The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result.
They identified a burst pipe as the cause of the flooding.
Reason
To determine or conclude by logical thinking
The doctor reasoned that the patient had a virus.
Cause
Sufficient reason for a state, as of emotion.
There is no cause for alarm.
The end of the war was a cause for celebration.
Reason
To persuade or dissuade (someone) with reasons
"You boast ... of having reasoned him out of his absurd romance" (William Makepeace Thackeray).
Cause
(countable) A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends.
Reason
To use the faculty of reason; think logically
What would lead you to reason so?.
Cause
(obsolete) Sake; interest; advantage.
Reason
To talk or argue logically and persuasively
Tried to reason with her son to eat a good breakfast.
Cause
Any subject of discussion or debate; a matter; an affair.
Reason
(Obsolete) To engage in conversation or discussion.
Cause
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.
Reason
A cause:
Cause
(transitive) To set off an event or action.
The lightning caused thunder.
Reason
That which causes something: an efficient cause, a proximate cause.
The reason this tree fell is that it had rotted.
Cause
(ditransitive) To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority.
His dogged determination caused the fundraising to be successful.
Reason
A motive for an action or a determination.
The reason I robbed the bank was that I needed the money.
If you don't give me a reason to go with you, I won't.
Cause
(obsolete) To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.
Reason
An excuse: a thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation.
Cause
Alternative form of 'cause; because
Reason
(logic) A premise placed after its conclusion.
Cause
That which produces or effects a result; that from which anything proceeds, and without which it would not exist.
Cause is substance exerting its power into act, to make one thing begin to be.
Reason
(uncountable) Rational thinking (or the capacity for it); the cognitive faculties, collectively, of conception, judgment, deduction and intuition.
Mankind should develop reason above all other virtues.
Cause
That which is the occasion of an action or state; ground; reason; motive; as, cause for rejoicing.
Reason
(obsolete) Something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.
Cause
Sake; interest; advantage.
I did it not for his cause.
Reason
Ratio; proportion.
Cause
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.
Reason
(intransitive) To deduce or come to a conclusion by being rational
Cause
Any subject of discussion or debate; matter; question; affair in general.
What counsel give you in this weighty cause!
Reason
(intransitive) To perform a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to argue.
Cause
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.
God befriend us, as our cause is just.
The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause.
Reason
To converse; to compare opinions.
Cause
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.
I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days.
Cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans.
Reason
(ambitransitive) To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss.
I reasoned the matter with my friend.
Cause
To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.
Reason
To support with reasons, as a request.
Cause
Abbreviation of Because.
Reason
(transitive) To persuade by reasoning or argument.
To reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan
Cause
Events that provide the generative force that is the origin of something;
They are trying to determine the cause of the crash
Reason
To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons.
To reason down a passion
Cause
A justification for something existing or happening;
He had no cause to complain
They had good reason to rejoice
Reason
To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.
To reason out the causes of the librations of the moon
Cause
A series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end;
He supported populist campaigns
They worked in the cause of world peace
The team was ready for a drive toward the pennant
The movement to end slavery
Contributed to the war effort
Reason
A thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; a just ground for a conclusion or an action; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation; the efficient cause of an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument.
I'll give him reasons for it.
The reason of the motion of the balance in a wheel watch is by the motion of the next wheel.
This reason did the ancient fathers render, why the church was called "catholic."
Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for that goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness.
Cause
Any entity that causes events to happen
Reason
The faculty or capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals; the higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty.
We have no other faculties of perceiving or knowing anything divine or human, but by our five senses and our reason.
In common and popular discourse, reason denotes that power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, and by which we are enabled to combine means for the attainment of particular ends.
Reason is used sometimes to express the whole of those powers which elevate man above the brutes, and constitute his rational nature, more especially, perhaps, his intellectual powers; sometimes to express the power of deduction or argumentation.
By the pure reason I mean the power by which we become possessed of principles.
The sense perceives; the understanding, in its own peculiar operation, conceives; the reason, or rationalized understanding, comprehends.
Cause
A comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy;
The family brought suit against the landlord
Reason
Due exercise of the reasoning faculty; accordance with, or that which is accordant with and ratified by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judgment; clear and fair deductions from true principles; that which is dictated or supported by the common sense of mankind; right conduct; right; propriety; justice.
I was promised, on a time,To have reason for my rhyme.
But law in a free nation hath been ever public reason; the enacted reason of a parliament, which he denying to enact, denies to govern us by that which ought to be our law; interposing his own private reason, which to us is no law.
The most probable way of bringing France to reason would be by the making an attempt on the Spanish West Indies.
Cause
Give rise to; cause to happen or occur, not always intentionally;
Cause a commotion
Make a stir
Cause an accident
Reason
Ratio; proportion.
When anything is proved by as good arguments as a thing of that kind is capable of, we ought not, in reason, to doubt of its existence.
Yet it were great reason, that those that have children should have greatest care of future times.
Cause
Cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner;
The ads induced me to buy a VCR
My children finally got me to buy a computer
My wife made me buy a new sofa
Reason
To exercise the rational faculty; to deduce inferences from premises; to perform the process of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.
Cause
Cause is the producer of an effect or result.
Heavy rain was the cause of the flood.
Reason
Hence: To carry on a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to formulate and set forth propositions and the inferences from them; to argue.
Stand still, that I may reason with you, before the Lord, of all the righteous acts of the Lord.
Cause
Cause is a principle or movement that one advocates for.
Environmental protection is a worthy cause.
Reason
To converse; to compare opinions.
Cause
Cause can denote the motive behind a legal action.
The plaintiff had just cause for suing the company.
Reason
To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss; as, I reasoned the matter with my friend.
When they are clearly discovered, well digested, and well reasoned in every part, there is beauty in such a theory.
Cause
Cause means a factor leading to a particular outcome.
Negligence was the cause of the accident.
Reason
To support with reasons, as a request.
Reason
To persuade by reasoning or argument; as, to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan.
Men that will not be reasoned into their senses.
Reason
To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons; - with down; as, to reason down a passion.
Reason
To find by logical processes; to explain or justify by reason or argument; - usually with out; as, to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon.
Reason
A rational motive for a belief or action;
The reason that war was declared
The grounds for their declaration
Reason
An explanation of the cause of some phenomenon;
The reason a steady state was never reached was that the back pressure built up too slowly
Reason
The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination;
We are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil
Reason
The state of having good sense and sound judgment;
His rationality may have been impaired
He had to rely less on reason than on rousing their emotions
Reason
A justification for something existing or happening;
He had no cause to complain
They had good reason to rejoice
Reason
A fact that logically justifies some premise or conclusion;
There is reason to believe he is lying
Reason
Decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion;
We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house
Reason
Present reasons and arguments
Reason
Think logically;
The children must learn to reason
Reason
Reason is the justification for a belief or assertion.
She provided ample reason to support her argument.
Common Curiosities
Can there be multiple causes for one event?
Absolutely, events often have multiple causes contributing to their occurrence.
Can something be both the cause and the reason?
Yes, for instance, hunger can be the cause of eating and the reason someone decides to eat.
Can an event lack a clear cause?
Some events might have complex, unclear, or debated causes.
How can causes be identified?
Through observation, investigation, and analysis of the events leading up to an effect.
Is the cause always tangible and observable?
Often, but not always. Some causes, like emotional distress, might not be directly observable.
Why is understanding the reason behind actions important?
Knowing the reason can provide insight into motivations, beliefs, and decision-making processes.
Can causes be prevented or mitigated?
Yes, understanding causes can help in preventing or lessening their effects.
What's the main distinction between a cause and a reason?
A cause directly produces an effect, while a reason provides the explanation or justification.
Is a reason always subjective?
While reasons can be subjective, they can also be objective, especially when based on factual data.
Do all actions have a reason?
Most actions have reasons, though they may not always be immediately clear or rational.
Can the cause of an event change over time?
While the original cause remains static, our understanding or interpretation of it might evolve.
How are reasons important in arguments or debates?
Reasons provide the foundation and justification for one's stance or viewpoint.
Is reason always logical?
Ideally, reasons are logical, but they can sometimes be based on emotions, beliefs, or misconceptions.
How do reasons differ from excuses?
Reasons offer genuine explanations, while excuses might attempt to justify or deflect responsibility.
Is there always a direct relationship between cause and effect?
Typically, but some effects might have indirect or multiple causes.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
