efficient cause
efficient cause noun: the being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing.
Noun
efficient cause (plural efficient causes)
- The being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing.
- As to its efficient cause, wit owes its production to an extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitution of the possessor of it, in which is found a concurrence of regular and exalted ferments, and an affluence of animal spirits, refined and rectified to a great degree of purity.1781, Samuel Johnson, quoting Sir Richard Blackmore in Lives of the Poets
- There must be some efficient cause for each slight individual difference, as well as for more strongly marked variations which occasionally arise.1859, Charles Darwin, chapter 7, in The Origin of Species
efficient cause meaning in Sanskrit
efficient cause in Sanskrit
- efficient cause or source
- साधन sā́dhana
Forms of efficient cause
| plural | efficient causes |
|---|
Questions about efficient cause
- What does efficient cause mean?
- Efficient cause means the being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing.
- What is efficient cause in Sanskrit?
- Efficient cause in Sanskrit is साधन (sā́dhana). See Efficient cause meaning in Sanskrit.
- What part of speech is efficient cause?
- Efficient cause is a noun.
- What is the plural of efficient cause?
- The plural of efficient cause is efficient causes.
Words near efficient cause in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: efficient cause (page history and authors); साधन (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “efficient cause.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/efficient_cause. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.