causa

cause, reason

noun KAH-oo-zah Common

Origin: From Latin causa (cause, reason, legal case).

Also means

case, lawsuit

Usage Note

Causa means the cause of something (la causa dell'incidente) and also a legal cause or court case (fare causa a qualcuno = 'to sue someone'). The preposition a causa di means 'because of, due to': a causa del traffico ('because of the traffic'). This is one of the most common ways to express causation in Italian.

Examples

"A causa del traffico, siamo arrivati tardi."

Natural Translation

Because of the traffic, we arrived late.

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