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Cause vs Due - What's the difference?

cause | due |

As nouns the difference between cause and due

is that cause is the source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result while due is deserved acknowledgment.

As a verb cause

is to set off an event or action.

As an adjective due is

owed or owing.

As an adverb due is

directly; exactly.

cause

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result.
  • Her wedding will be cause for celebration.
    They identified a burst pipe as the cause of the flooding.
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.}}
  • A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends.
  • * Shakespeare
  • God befriend us, as our cause is just.
  • * Burke
  • The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause .
  • (obsolete) Sake; interest; advantage.
  • * Bible, 2 Corinthians vii. 12
  • I did it not for his cause .
  • (obsolete) Any subject of discussion or debate; a matter; an affair.
  • * Shakespeare
  • What counsel give you in this weighty cause ?
  • (legal) 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.
  • Synonyms

    * (source or reason) reason, source

    Derived terms

    * because * causal * causality * causative * cause celebre * efficient cause * final cause * for cause (law) * formal cause * material cause

    See also

    * effect

    Verb

    (caus)
  • To set off an event or action.
  • *
  • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=A better waterworks, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic
  • To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority.
  • * Bible, (w) vii.4
  • I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days.
  • * , chapter=13
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.}}
  • To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.
  • (Spenser)

    Derived terms

    * causation

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English control verbs ----

    due

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Owed or owing.
  • Appropriate.
  • * Gray
  • With dirges due , in sad array, / Slow through the churchway path we saw him borne.
  • Scheduled; expected.
  • Having reached the expected, scheduled, or natural time.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.}}
  • Owing; ascribable, as to a cause.
  • * J. D. Forbes
  • This effect is due to the attraction of the sun.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother

    Synonyms

    * (owed or owing) needed, owing, to be made, required * (appropriate) * expected, forecast * (having reached the scheduled or natural time) expected

    Derived terms

    * driving without due care and attention * due date * due to * in due time * taxes due * with all due respect

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (used with compass directions) Directly; exactly.
  • The river runs due north for about a mile.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Deserved acknowledgment.
  • Give him his due — he is a good actor.
  • * {{quote-news, author=Daniel Taylor, title=David Silva seizes point for Manchester City as Chelsea are checked, work=(The Guardian) (London), date=31 January 2015 citation
  • , passage=Chelsea, to give them their due , did start to cut out the defensive lapses as the game went on but they needed to because their opponents were throwing everything at them in those stages and, if anything, seemed encouraged by the message that Mourinho’s Rémy-Cahill switch sent out.}}
  • (in plural dues ) A membership fee.
  • That which is owed; debt; that which belongs or may be claimed as a right; whatever custom, law, or morality requires to be done, duty.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He will give the devil his due .
  • * Tennyson
  • Yearly little dues of wheat, and wine, and oil.
  • Right; just title or claim.
  • * Milton
  • The key of this infernal pit by due I keep.

    Derived terms

    * give someone his due * give the devil his due

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----