caused

Caused is the past tense and past participle of the verb cause, meaning to bring about an effect or result. It is used to express that something produced or brought about another event or condition. For example, a fault can be described as caused by a faulty switch. In ordinary usage, something is said to be caused by something else, often introduced by by, because, or due to.

As a participle, caused appears in perfect tenses (has caused, had caused) and in passive constructions (was caused, were caused). It can also function as an adjective in phrases such as caused damage or caused problems, where it describes the result of a preceding action.

Etymology: The noun cause derives from Latin causa, via Old French cause. The verb to cause developed from the noun, through Old French causer, with its sense of bringing about or producing an effect. The forms caused and causing reflect the standard English past tense and participle formation.

In broader usage, causation is the concept that one event or condition (the cause) brings about another (the effect). Philosophical discussions of causation explore how causes relate to effects, including theories based on regularity, counterfactual dependence, and intervention or manipulation. In science and statistics, distinguishing causation from correlation is a central concern, with methods such as controlled experiments and causal modeling used to infer causal relationships while accounting for confounding factors.