direct cause
Proximate triggering factor
A direct cause is an immediate factor that produces an effect without intervening steps.
In law, it establishes liability: the direct cause of an injury is the proximate one, legally responsible for damages.
Contrast with indirect or contributing causes, which operate through intermediate events: The direct cause of death was blunt force trauma, though underlying conditions contributed.
- causal chainEvents triggering subsequent events
- sine qua nonIndispensable condition
- antecedentSomething that precedes
- foreseeabilityCapacity to be anticipated
- necessary conditionRequired for outcome possibility
smoking gun · triggering event · independent variable · inciting incident · first domino · tort · remoteness · sufficient condition · chain of events · determinism · mechanism · causal link · negligence · liability · culpability · duty of care · immediate · instigate
- legal causationcausal chain, sine qua non, causal link, foreseeability, remoteness
- Blameblame, fault, culprit, accusation, guilt-tripping
direct causeindirect cause
Remote contributing element
underlying cause · contributing factor · root cause · downstream effect · ultimate cause
direct causeeffect
Result of a cause
result · consequence · outcome · end result · direct effect
direct causeconfounding variable
Unmeasured cause affecting outcomes
coincidence · correlation · contributing factor · red herring