turning point 
noun
A time at which a decisive change in a situation occurs, especially one with beneficial results: this could be the turning point in Nigel’s career...
- The turning points have been the result not of an accumulation of gradual changes in education or ‘enlightened’ official policy.
- All of the decisive turning points of German history were characterised by violent and usually bloody conflicts between the classes.
- Hardly any attention is given to the decisive turning points at which history might have taken a different path.
Synonyms
watershed, critical moment, decisive moment, crossroads, crisis, climacteric, moment of truth;
landmark
- life peerage
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- life policy
- life preserver
- life-preserving
- lifer
- life raft
- life rate
- life regiment
- liferent
- liferented
- liferenter
- liferent escheat
- liferentrices
- liferentrix
- liferentrixes
- life ring
- life rocket
- life root
- life-save
- lifesaver
- life-saving
- life savings
- life-saving station