inflection point

noun

1

: a moment when significant change occurs or may occur : turning point

At 18, Bobby is at an inflection point that will largely determine the course of his life.

—Stacy Perman

… the gradual move away from big-iron machines toward work stations and personal computers has been going on for years in corporate America—but the inflection point came suddenly.

—Steve Lohr

It depends on us, on the choices we make, particularly at certain inflection points in history; particularly when big changes are happening and everything seems up for grabs.

—Barack Obama

2

mathematics : a point on a curve that separates an arc concave upward from one concave downward and vice versa

Examples of inflection point in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Bigger Picture The semiconductor and AI industries are at an inflection point. —Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2025

This game could be an inflection point in the Johnson-at-center experiment. —Daniel Popper, New York Times, 31 July 2025

For health care providers, this marks a notable inflection point. —Alexis Kayser, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 July 2025

Wolfe herself was appointed at an inflection point in the agency's history, after Republican state senators fired the commission's previous administrator over a connection to a controversial investigation of Walker and other Republicans. —Jessie Opoien, jsonline.com, 26 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1708, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for inflection point

• adjoint
• anoint
• appoint
• checkpoint
• conjoint
• disjoint
• endpoint
• gunpoint
• midpoint
• nonpoint
• pinpoint
• standpoint