‘引起’ is a compound verb meaning 'to cause' or 'to trigger'—often something that initiates a reaction, response, or effect. The first character 引 (yǐn) means 'to lead', 'to draw', or 'to invite'; the second character 起 (qǐ) means 'to rise', 'to start', or 'to begin'. Together, they convey the idea of 'setting something in motion'—especially an event, emotion, condition, or consequence. It is commonly used in formal and semi-formal contexts, such as news reports, academic writing, medical descriptions, and everyday explanations of cause-and-effect relationships.

This verb typically appears in subject–verb–object structures, where the subject is the cause and the object is the resulting phenomenon (e.g., 'stress引起headaches'). It’s rarely used in isolation—it almost always takes an object (a noun or noun phrase), and it’s not followed by aspect particles like 了 or 过 unless the sentence structure explicitly calls for them. While neutral in register, it carries a slightly more objective, analytical tone than colloquial alternatives like 让 or 造成.