Turn around or turnaround?
turn around is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of turnaround”; turnaround is a noun meaning “The act of turning to face in the other direction”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. turn around is written as two words and turnaround as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between turn around and turnaround?
| turn around | turnaround | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | To physically rotate (usually around a vertical axis) for a half turn (180 degrees), a whole turn (360 degrees), or an indefinite amount To change drastically in a fundamental way, often for the better; to change to the opposite (opinion or position) | The act of turning to face in the other direction A reversal of policy |
| Example | At the end of the road, we turned around and walked back to the hotel | The basketball player made a turnaround jump shot |
| Forms | turn-arounds | turnarounds |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈtɜːnəˌɹaʊnd/ /ˈtɜɹnəˌɹaʊnd/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 2.5 times per million words |
Sources: turn around and turnaround in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of turn around and turnaround
turn around
- 1
Alternative spelling of turnaround
- 2
To physically rotate (usually around a vertical axis) for a half turn (180 degrees), a whole turn (360 degrees), or an indefinite amount
At the end of the road, we turned around and walked back to the hotel
- 3
Alternative form of turnaround
- 4
To change drastically in a fundamental way, often for the better; to change to the opposite (opinion or position)
She turned her position around and now she is in favor of the merger
- 5
To reverse an expected outcome (of a game, etc.), usually from a losing outcome to a winning one; to return (a business, department, etc.) to effectiveness, profitability, etc
The new management team has really turned the company around 180 degrees, and they expect a good profit next year
- 6
To convert (an agent) to work for one's own side
- 7
colloquialTo suddenly change or reverse one's opinion, point of view, stated position, behaviour, etc
You can't just turn around and say that it was all my fault
- 8
To consider from a different viewpoint
Let's turn that around and look at it from another angle
turnaround
- 1
The act of turning to face in the other direction
The basketball player made a turnaround jump shot
- 2
A reversal of policy
- 3
The carrying out of a task; the time required to carry it out
They tried to reduce their turnaround on incoming paperwork
- 4
A turnabout; a reversal of circumstances
- 5
A series of sketches of a character as seen from different angles
- 6
A cadence linking the end of a verse to the beginning of the next
- 7
The notation for the addition of a grace note above then below a given note
- 8
USSynonym of goback
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, turn around or turnaround?
turn around is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; turnaround 2.5 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search turn around vs turnaround?
“turn around vs turnaround” is searched about 140 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“turnaround vs turn around”, “turn around or turnaround”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.