root cause
root cause (causa raíz)
the first, deepest cause that starts a chain of events; fixing it keeps the problem from coming back.
Example
The shop kept running out of labels because no one was in charge of ordering supplies. (Root cause: no one was in charge of ordering.)
In Spanish
root cause (causa raíz) — la primera causa, la más profunda, que inicia una cadena de sucesos; si se resuelve, el problema no vuelve.
The shop kept running out of labels because no one was in charge of ordering supplies. (Causa raíz: nadie estaba a cargo de los pedidos.)