turning point

noun

"turning-point" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“turning point” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A decisive point at which a significant change or historical event occurs, or at which a decision must be made.

Corpus desk

Index EN-turning-point · turning point · English

turning point · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 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.

Key facts for turning point
PropertyValue
Headwordturning point
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “turning point” in English

turning pointsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

turning point is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for turning point, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is turning point, spelled T-U-R-N-I-N-G- -P-O-I-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A decisive point at which a significant change or historical event occurs, or at which a decision must be made.
  2. 2
    A maximum or minimum on a graph.
  3. 3
    A crossroads.
  4. 4
    A T-junction.
  5. 5
    A place at which one changes their direction of travel.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how turning point appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road / Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
  2. Europe will be watching the final battle closely. A Hollande victory in the second round would be a turning point in European politics, a rare victory for the left in Europe, which has in recent years moved towards the right

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "turning point"?
"turning point" is spelled T-U-R-N-I-N-G- -P-O-I-N-T.
What does "turning point" mean?
As a noun, "turning point" means: A decisive point at which a significant change or historical event occurs, or at which a decision must be made.
What language does "turning point" come from?
"turning point" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list