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turning point

noun

Simple meaning

An event marking a unique or important historical change of course or one on which important developments depend.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

turnihngpoynt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtɝnɪŋˈpɔɪnt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. An event marking a unique or important historical change of course or one on which important developments depend

  2. A decisive point at which a significant change or historical event occurs, or at which a decision must be made.

  3. calculus

    A maximum or minimum on a graph.

  4. A place at which one changes their direction of travel.

  5. A crossroads.

  6. A T-junction.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An event marking a unique or important historical change of course or one on which important developments depend

Used this way, turning point is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in historical writing contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Formal and precise

Where it naturally appears

  • Historical writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.