These words refer to events that are caused, determined or set in action by, or that bring to completion, antecedent events of which they are the outgrowth. Result is the most general of these, indicating a strict causal link between the two event: unemployment that was the direct result of the balanced budget. The word may often suggest an earlier action deliberately taken to gain a particular goal: pacifying words that had their intended result of calming the hysterical woman. Sometimes the word may suggest earlier action taken experimentally to determine or measure what then will happen: evaluating the results of the double-blind cancer test. Effect emphasizes even more strictly than result the notion of causality and thus gives a more objective, almost scientific tone. Result , furthermore, may suggest a unique or unpredictable one-time action, while effect emphasizes a principle that underlies a chain of events and that continues to work in other instances: a childhood familiarity with firearms that had such an unexpected and tragic result : the effect of radiation on the heredity of fruit flies.

Consequence may refer to simple causation in a neutral way: prosperity that was the consequence of widely expanded governmental spending. More often the word suggests a negative result or at least the negative concomitant of an otherwise desirable effect: arguing that the rise in lung cancers was a consequence of cigarette smoking; tolerating a measure of inflation if it was the inevitable consequence of full employment.

Outcome and denouement relate to result in emphasizing more strongly a unique or isolated conclusion to a sequence of events. The informal outcome suggests finality or resolution: hearing of the fight he had been in, but not of its outcome . The notion of causality here is far less strong than in the previous words: a tragic outcome for such a happy marriage. Denouement is the most formal of these words; at its most restricted, it refers to the final working out of plot in a fictional narrative, especially a play: a dramatic conflict that is resolved in the surprising but completely believable denouement . This word is often extended to other areas of use, where it functions as a more formal synonym for outcome , especially in cases where events are dramatic, suspenseful and unpredictable: a vote of censure that came as a denouement to the charges and countercharges aired during the parliamentary investigation; a Pyrrhic victory on the battlefield that had as its denouement the inconclusive statements issued by the peace conference.