to explain (something) as being the result of something elseattributed the quick rescue to the well-trained police force

to give the reason for or cause ofa psychotherapist who's a little too quick to attribute every emotional problem or character defect to an unhappy childhood

n.quality, property, character, attribute mean an intelligible feature by which a thing may be identified.quality is a general term applicable to any trait or characteristic whether individual or generic.material with a silky qualityproperty implies a characteristic that belongs to a thing's essential nature and may be used to describe a type or species.the property of not conducting heatcharacter applies to a peculiar and distinctive quality of a thing or a class.remarks of an unseemly characterattribute implies a quality ascribed to a thing or a being.the attributes of a military hero

v.ascribe, attribute, assign, impute, credit mean to lay something to the account of a person or thing.ascribe suggests an inferring or conjecturing of cause, quality, authorship.forged paintings formerly ascribed to mastersattribute suggests less tentativeness than ascribe, less definiteness than assign.attributed to Rembrandt but possibly done by an associateassign implies ascribing with certainty or after deliberation.assigned the bones to the Cretaceous periodimpute suggests ascribing something that brings discredit by way of accusation or blame.tried to impute sinister motives to my actionscredit implies ascribing a thing or especially an action to a person or other thing as its agent, source, or explanation.credited his teammates for his success

in the 14^th century