Technical term used in medicine, biology, and engineering to describe the process or sequence of events by which something operates.
The mechanism of onset of this disease has not yet been elucidated.
mechanism of action; mode of action
Compound of 機 (ki, 'machine; mechanism') and 序 (jo, 'order; sequence'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the spelling is conventionally associated with the meaning 'mechanism' in technical fields.