root cause
Problem's true source
Root cause is the fundamental reason something happened—the underlying source rather than a symptom or intermediate factor.
Finding the root cause means tracing a problem back to its origin: The root cause of the outage was a misconfigured server, not the traffic spike.
The term is common in engineering, medicine, and business analysis, where surface-level fixes waste resources if the root cause remains unaddressed.
Point of origin
- genesisPoint of creation
- beginningInitial stage of something
- inceptionFounding moment
- seedEmbryonic plant capsule
basis · foundation · antecedent · precursor · provenance · fountainhead · wellspring · derivation
Point of contention
- defectInherent imperfection or fault
- failureLack of success
- malfunctionFailure to operate properly
- errorFault in communication
breakdown · fault · bug · flaw · weakness · vulnerability · bottleneck · dysfunction
Existing beneath the surface
- fundamentalForming the base
- troubleshootingSystematic fault diagnosis
- diagnosisIdentification of illness
- investigationFormal examination of facts
identification · detection · assessment · evaluation · examination · audit · review · forensics
Act of correcting faults
- fixRepair or solution
- resolutionFormal decision or determination
- preventionStopping something before occurring
- mitigationReduction of severity
countermeasure · elimination · addressing · containment · improvement · intervention
source
Point of origin
seed · basis · foundation · antecedent · precursor · provenance · fountainhead · wellspring · derivation · etiology
issue
Point of contention
- defectInherent imperfection or fault
- failureLack of success
- malfunctionFailure to operate properly
error · breakdown · fault · bug · flaw · weakness · vulnerability · bottleneck · dysfunction · symptom
underlying
Existing beneath the surface
- fundamentalForming the base
- troubleshootingSystematic fault diagnosis
- diagnosisIdentification of illness
investigation · identification · detection · assessment · evaluation · examination · audit · review · forensics · probe
remediation
Act of correcting faults
- fixRepair or solution
- resolutionFormal decision or determination
- preventionStopping something before occurring
mitigation · countermeasure · elimination · addressing · containment · improvement · intervention
- philosophy termstruth, reason, knowledge, wisdom, logic
- problem-solvingproblem solving, puzzles, riddles, logic, solutions
- analysisanalyze, analysis, evaluate, data analysis, examine
- problemsproblem, issue, difficulty, complication, trouble
- motivesintent, motive, intention, purpose, goal
- rootstaproot, rootlet, radicle, zeros, solutions
root causesymptom
Indicator of disease
manifestation · effect · outcome · consequence · result
root, cause, roots, rooted, uproot, rooting, uprooting, uprooted, root causes