take a turn for the worse
"take-a-turn-for-the-worse" is a 20-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“take a turn for the worse” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 25
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To start to become worse; to worsen.
Corpus desk
Index EN-take-a-turn-for-the-wors · take a turn for the worse · English
take a turn for the worse · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 25 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | take a turn for the worse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 25 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “take a turn for the worse” in English
Rare enough to double-check
take a turn for the worse is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To start to become worse; to worsen.".
Zero misspellings are on record for take a turn for the worse in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is take a turn for the worse, spelled T-A-K-E- -A- -T-U-R-N- -F-O-R- -T-H-E- -W-O-R-S-E.
Definition
- 1To start to become worse; to worsen.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how take a turn for the worse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Rest assured, this will not last. Take a turn for the worse. Your hate, clipped and distant. Your luck, [a] two-headed cow.
But Torres's afternoon was to take a turn for the worse for a second week in succession as he was shown a straight red card by referee Mike Dean for a two-footed challenge on Gower.
Antonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.