young Turk

young Turk noun: from the late-19th to the early-20th century, a member of a movement that campaigned for reform of the Ottoman Empire.

Noun (1)

young Turk (plural young Turks)

(historical) From the late-19th to the early-20th century, a member of a movement that campaigned for reform of the Ottoman Empire.
(broadly, idiomatic) A young person who agitates for political or other reform; a young person with a rebellious disposition.
- "What! Roscoe?" inquired the principal.
  "Yes."
  "Is he in any mischief?"
  "Mischief? I should say so! Why, he's a regular young Turk."
  "A young Turk? I don't think I understand you, James."
  "I mean, he's a young ruffian."1885, Horatio Alger, chapter 14, in Hector's Inheritance
- He arrives at a time when jazz's discontented Young Turks have disdainfully turned away from their audiences and gone off to explore the way-out.1966 September 30, “Jazz: Man with a Brain”, in Time

Young Turk (plural Young Turks)

Calque of French Jeune-Turc, from which also Turkish Jön Türk has been borrowed.

What does young Turk mean?: Young Turk means from the late-19th to the early-20th century, a member of a movement that campaigned for reform of the Ottoman Empire.
What is young Turk in Bengali?: Young Turk in Bengali is তরুণ তুর্কি (torun turki). See Young Turk meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is young Turk?: Young Turk is a noun.
What is the plural of young Turk?: The plural of young Turk is young Turks.

Adapted from Wiktionary: young Turk (page history and authors); Young Turk (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-young Turk.ogg.

Cite this entry: “young Turk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/young_turk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.