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What more idiomatic in the following context, causes of or causes for?

I want to put a title in a work: causes of/ for this problem

Now, I know that I can put simply: "causes" and no more needed. But I'm asking also for the text itself where I can't just use the word causes but I have to elucidate and say: "The causes of/for this problem are: 1, 2, 3 etc.)

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If you simply want to say the person or thing that makes something happen, you say 'cause of'; but if you want to say a reason for having particular feelings or behaving in a particular way, you say 'cause for'.

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  • Thank you. But please, add to the answer with an example or couple of examples, to make it more understood. Commented Jun 10, 2020 at 7:56
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“Cause for” signifies “a result or outcome of something” like “cause for immediate action”, “cause for alarm”, “cause for panic”, “cause for concern”, etc. Whereas “cause of” signifies “a source of something” like “cause of accidents”, “cause of deforestation”, etc.

I don’t think “cause for” is often used. The Ngram Viewer shows that “cause of” is more commonly used than “cause for”.


The causes of/for this problem are: 1, 2, 3 etc.

It’s more suitable to use “of” here because we are talking about the sources of a problem.

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