turning point
Americannoun
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a point at which a decisive change takes place; critical point; crisis.
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a point at which something changes direction, especially a high or low point on a graph.
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Surveying. a point temporarily located and marked in order to establish the elevation or position of a surveying instrument at a new station.
noun
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a moment when the course of events is changed
the turning point of his career
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a point at which there is a change in direction or motion
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maths a stationary point at which the first derivative of a function changes sign, so that typically its graph does not cross a horizontal tangent
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surveying a point to which a foresight and a backsight are taken in levelling; change point
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of turning point
First recorded in 1850–55
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.
During his interview with Loomer, Zelensky opened up about a turning point in his relationship with Trump when they huddled at the Vatican last year at the funeral of Pope Francis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
The real turning point was in 2017, marked by the publication of a paper out of Google called “Attention Is All You Need,” which introduced the architecture behind today’s large language models.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
"German football as a whole is facing a turning point, we have to change some fundamental things."
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Astronomers have reached a major turning point in the search for life beyond Earth by detecting an atmosphere around a rocky, Earth-like planet located in another star's habitable zone.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
But as chemistry developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people began to look back on Boyle’s book as a turning point.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
