final cause

1. 1.

   (philosophy) the end or purpose of a thing or process

   Broaderpurpose

   philosophy

Questions about final cause

What does final cause mean?

final cause means "(philosophy) the end or purpose of a thing or process".

Is final cause a common word?

final cause is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.