Word.ws English Dictionary

turn of the century

turn of the century noun: 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.

Noun

turn of the century (usually uncountable, plural turns of the centuries or turns of centuries)

  1. (usually) 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.
    • By the turn of the century he was starting to become well known in literary circles.
    • The 7th and 8th classes are identical with the Cape engines placed in service at the turn of the century, and are now outclassed for main line work but are used for shunting at the large depots and on one or two of the branch lines.1940 December, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 639

turn of the century meaning in Arabic

turn of the century in Arabic

beginning or end of a certain century
مُنْعَطَفُ الْقَرْنِ munʕaṭafu l-qarni

Forms of turn of the century

pluralturns of the centuries
pluralturns of centuries

Questions about turn of the century

What does turn of the century mean?
Turn of the century means 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.
What is turn of the century in Arabic?
Turn of the century in Arabic is مُنْعَطَفُ الْقَرْنِ (munʕaṭafu l-qarni). See Turn of the century meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is turn of the century?
Turn of the century is a noun.
What is the plural of turn of the century?
The plural of turn of the century is turns of the centuries.

Words near turn of the century in the dictionary

  1. turn of foot
  2. turn of mind
  3. turn of pace
  4. turn of phrase
  5. turn of speed
  6. turn of the century
  7. turn of the screw
  8. turn of the year
  9. turn of words
  10. turn off
  11. turn on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn of the century (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “turn of the century.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turn_of_the_century. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.