turning point
Americannoun
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turning points
plural
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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.
The all-electric Semi gives Tesla a way into the autonomous trucking industry, which Morgan Stanley analysts see reaching a turning point in 2027.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
It was a turning point in 21st-century history.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
However, Kolisi, South Africa's first black captain, also referenced 1976's Soweto Uprising - the student protests that were a turning point in the fight against apartheid, the state-backed racial segregation of South African society.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
A major turning point for Hugging Face came in 2018, when Google released a new version of its transformer, the neural network technology at the heart of modern generative AI models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
The turning point came in 1940, when the Coast Guard started detecting new code signals coming from unlicensed wildcat stations like the ones the rumrunners had used.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
