Idiom idiom
root cause
Meaning
An initiating cause of a chain of events which leads to an outcome or effect of interest.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“We need to find the root cause of this problem.”
“The mechanic inspected the engine to identify the root cause of the strange noise.”
“After a thorough investigation, the committee finally determined that poor communication was the root cause of the project's failure.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026