Cause

1. v. The side of a question, which is espoused, advocated, and upheld by a person or party; a principle which is advocated; that which a person or party seeks to attain.
2. v. That which produces or effects a result; that from which anything proceeds, and without which it would not exist.
3. v. That which is the occasion of an action or state; ground; reason; motive; as, cause for rejoicing.
4. v. Sake; interest; advantage.
5. v. A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.
6. v. Any subject of discussion or debate; matter; question; affair in general.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.