Word.ws English Dictionary

turnabout

turnabout noun: the act of turning about so as to face in the opposite direction.

Noun

turnabout (countable and uncountable, plural turnabouts)

  1. The act of turning about so as to face in the opposite direction.
    • It is a fine dance, fast and intricate, with many turnabouts. The women's long black hair swirls as they turn; […]1975, National Geographic, volume 148, page 380
  2. A change from one thing to its opposite, or from a situation to the reverse.
    • Any idea of how many transsexuals there are in America? About 10,000, some 1500 of whom have changed their sex by surgery. The male-to-female turnabout costs $3000-$5000, while the female-to-male process runs up to $12,000.1974 April 7, “People”, in Boston Globe
  3. A reversal of a decision or opinion etc; a change of mind or flip-flop.
  4. A three-point turn or any similar act of turning around, with the same outcome, regardless of how many repeated forward-reverse maneuvers it takes.
  5. A merry-go-round.

Forms of turnabout

pluralturnabouts
alternative formturn-about
alternative formturn about

Origin of turnabout

From turn + about.

Words formed from turnabout

Phrases with turnabout

Questions about turnabout

What does turnabout mean?
Turnabout means the act of turning about so as to face in the opposite direction.
What part of speech is turnabout?
Turnabout is a noun.
What is the plural of turnabout?
The plural of turnabout is turnabouts.

Words near turnabout in the dictionary

  1. turn-ups for the book
  2. turn-ups for the books
  3. turnability
  4. turnable
  5. turnably
  6. turnabout
  7. turnabout dance
  8. turnabout dances
  9. turnabout is fair play
  10. turnabouts
  11. turnagain

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turnabout (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: “turnabout.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turnabout. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.