Explain vs Cause - What's the difference?
explain | cause |
To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
*
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106
, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
(obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result.
* , chapter=5
, title= A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends.
* Shakespeare
* Burke
(obsolete) Sake; interest; advantage.
* Bible, 2 Corinthians vii. 12
(obsolete) Any subject of discussion or debate; a matter; an affair.
* Shakespeare
(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.
To set off an event or action.
*
* {{quote-magazine, title=A better waterworks, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
, page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist)
To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority.
* Bible, (w) vii.4
* , chapter=13
, title= To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.
As verbs the difference between explain and cause
is that explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of while cause is .explain
English
(Explanation)Verb
(en verb)- The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .
Pixels or Perish, passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
Fantasy of navigation, passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
- The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.
Synonyms
* (give a sufficiently detailed report) expound, elaboratecause
English
Noun
(en noun)- Her wedding will be cause for celebration.
- They identified a burst pipe as the cause of the flooding.
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.}}
- God befriend us, as our cause is just.
- The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause .
- I did it not for his cause .
- What counsel give you in this weighty cause ?
Synonyms
* (source or reason) reason, sourceDerived terms
* because * causal * causality * causative * cause celebre * efficient cause * final cause * for cause (law) * formal cause * material causeSee also
* effectVerb
(caus)- 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.
citation, passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic
- I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days.
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.}}
- (Spenser)