turn of the century
"turn-of-the-century" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“turn of the century” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The beginning or end of a certain century; the transition from one century to the next; often, especially in architecture, the beginning of the 20th century.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | turn of the century |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “turn of the century” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
turn of the century is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The beginning or end of a certain century; the transition from one century to the next; often, especially in architecture, the beginning of the 20th century.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for turn of the century, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is turn of the century, spelled T-U-R-N- -O-F- -T-H-E- -C-E-N-T-U-R-Y.
Definition
- 1The beginning or end of a certain century; the transition from one century to the next; often, especially in architecture, the beginning of the 20th century.
This word in other languages
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.
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Using “turn of the century”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-U-R-N- -O-F- -T-H-E- -C-E-N-T-U-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.