Owing to means because of, or as a result of something. When the baseball game is canceled owing to rain, the rain is the reason there's no game. When a student arrives late owing to a dentist appointment, the appointment caused the lateness.

The phrase works like “due to” or “because of,” connecting an outcome to its cause. You might say a traffic jam happened owing to an accident, or a picnic was moved indoors owing to thunderstorms. The phrase points back to explain why something occurred.

Owing to sounds more formal than simply saying “because.” You're more likely to see it in written announcements or formal explanations than in casual conversation. A school newsletter might say “The assembly has been rescheduled owing to a scheduling conflict,” while students would probably just say “because of a scheduling problem.”

The word owing by itself means something is owed or due, like money you still need to pay back. But in the phrase owing to, it takes on this different meaning of explaining causes and reasons.