turning point

What it means

A turning point is a moment when the direction of events shifts in an important and often irreversible way — for a person, a project, a relationship, or a country. It's used in biographies, business stories, historical accounts, and personal reflection to mark before-and-after divides.

Examples

• Meeting my mentor at twenty was the turning point of my career.
• The 2008 crisis was a turning point for the global economy.
• Therapy was a real turning point in how I handle stress.
• Historians see that election as the turning point of the century.

Where it comes from

An English compound noun in use since at least the 17th century, built from the literal geometric sense of a point at which a path or curve changes direction. The figurative meaning of a decisive moment was well established by the 1800s.

Related idioms