root cause

plural root causes

1. idiomaticAn initiating cause of a chain of events which leads to an outcome or effect of interest.

   However, the report finds that the "root cause has not yet been established".

   2021 September 22, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Hitachi cracks due to fatigue and corrosion”, in RAIL, number 940, page 22

   Synonyms: bottom

present singular third person root causes · participle present root causing · participle past root caused · past root caused · alternative root-cause

1. transitiveTo identify the cause of a chain of events which leads to an outcome or effect of interest.

   Fishbones are a great tool for collecting, categorizing, and root-causing feedback from staff.

   2017, Charles Protzman, Joyce Kerpchar, George Mayzell, Leveraging Lean in Ancillary Hospital Services, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 108

   1 more example

   After the effect of the bug is observed using post-silicon tests, the next step is to localize the source of error, root-cause bugs, and fix them.

   2018, Prabhat Mishra, Farimah Farahmandi, chapter 1, in Post-Silicon Validation and Debug, Springer, →ISBN, page 13