Word of the day · Saturday, November 7, 2026

causa

noun

Latin for cause or reason, used in legal phrases such as causa mortis. Also a Peruvian dish of chilled, lime-seasoned yellow potato layered with fillings like chicken, tuna or avocado.

Where it comes from

Latin causa, cause or lawsuit, the source of English cause.

Worth knowing

Causa limeña is served cold in slices, usually bright yellow from aji amarillo pepper. Stories about where the name came from vary and none is confirmed.

By the letters

• 5letters
• 3vowels (A E I O U)
• noneuncommon letters
• 4different letters

Playing it

CAUSA ends in A, which is rarer than it looks among five-letter words. It shares four letters with CAUSE, so an E or an A at the end can make either word.

Hooks

One letter added to make a new word (what is a hook), at the end: CAUSAL.

One letter away

Words you get by changing a single letter, the steps of a word ladder.

• cauda
• cause

In Unsaid

CAUSA was word of the day number 20 in Unsaid, a falling-letter word game where every player gets the same word on the same date. As a word it scores 500 points. Under the current rules, spelling it as the word of the day is worth a bonus of 9,000 reading down or 6,750 reading across, before any streak. How the bonus works.