turntable
Americannoun
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turntables
plural
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the rotating disk that spins the record on a phonograph.
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Railroads. a rotating, track-bearing platform pivoted in the center, used for turning locomotives and cars around.
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a rotating stand used in sculpture, metalwork, and ceramics.
noun
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the circular horizontal platform that rotates a gramophone record while it is being played
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a flat circular platform that can be rotated about its centre, used for turning locomotives and cars
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the revolvable platform on a microscope on which specimens are examined
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of turntable
Explanation
A turntable is an old-fashioned device for listening to music — it's the part of a record player that revolves, turning the record as a needle rests on it. You can use the word turntable interchangeably with "record player" or "phonograph." If you want to listen to LPs, those large, flat discs that store sound recordings in their grooves, you're going to need a turntable. This meaning has been around since the early 20th century. Before that, a turntable was a round, revolving platform used in train yards for turning a railroad car.
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.
See Examples For:
It began when two stray cats made city venues their home, becoming social media stars thanks to the incongruous sights of tail and turntable, pint and paw.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
The strategy allowed disco DJs to use the longer album versions, erasing the possibility that a turntable needle would drift into the next track.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
“I had one turntable, one cassette player, a boombox and I was just making the best mixtape ever,” he remembers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
Stereos used to have an amplifier and then a turntable and then speakers and all of these different things.
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2025
Using his trackpad and turntable controls, Leo opened the claw.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
A DJ in a sharp suit is manning the turntables, and waitresses in ties and white smoking-jacket-inspired dresses—outfits of Eagle’s design—scour the crowd as people dance with drinks in the air.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
He got behind the turntables for a mini-set that eulogised his former collaborator Amy Winehouse -- who died in 2011 -- and featured US rapper Ghostface Killah and Dua Lipa.
From Barron's ● Feb. 28, 2026
Unlike turntables, which have become increasingly high-tech thanks to the “vinyl revival” of the last 20 years, almost all cassette players in current production rely on the same, basic tape mechanism from Taiwan, Richardson explains.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
Early hip-hop DJs embraced the LP for its extended, well-produced tracks that they sampled on turntables for breakdancers and rappers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 2025
At the center of all that gear was the opening DJ, R2-D2, hard at work, using his various robotic arms to work the turntables.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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.
