tipping point
Americannoun
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the point at which an issue, idea, product, etc., crosses a certain threshhold and gains significant momentum, triggered by some minor factor or change.
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the point in a situation at which a minor development precipitates a crisis.
Every infected person brings us closer to the tipping point, when the outbreak becomes an epidemic.
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Physics. the point at which an object is no longer balanced, and adding a small amount of weight can cause it to topple.
noun
Etymology
Origin of tipping point
First recorded in 1955–60
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It can be an overload to voters where they hit that tipping point where they’re no longer interested,” Flynn said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
Perhaps this data center battle, then, was just the tipping point for widely frustrated and fearful Utahns.
From Slate • Jun. 1, 2026
When sentiment reaches extremes, it can sometimes signal that the market might be reaching a tipping point.
From MarketWatch • May 19, 2026
I knew hantavirus had reached a tipping point when my own 12-year-old called out to us after bedtime to ask: “What is hantavirus, and do we have to worry about it?”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 16, 2026
Some scholars believe we have long since passed a tipping point where the declining marginal return on imprisonment has dipped below zero.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
