A turnabout means a complete reversal or change to the opposite situation. When something does a turnabout, it flips around entirely, like a car making a U-turn to go back the way it came.

You see turnabouts in everyday situations. Maybe the soccer team that was losing 3-0 at halftime makes a complete turnabout and wins 4-3. Or a student who struggled with fractions suddenly has everything click and becomes confident with them. The situation reversed itself.

The word often appears in the expression “turnabout is fair play,” which means that if someone does something to you, it's fair for you to do the same thing back to them. If your brother splashes you with water from the pool, turnabout is fair play when you splash him back. The phrase suggests a kind of justice: what goes around comes around.

In stories, a dramatic turnabout happens when circumstances flip unexpectedly. The villain who seemed unstoppable gets defeated. The underdog team that everyone doubted wins the championship. These turnabouts make stories exciting because they remind us that situations can always change, especially when people refuse to give up.