Meaning & use
turnover
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Meanings
noununcountablebusinessBritish
The total value of goods or services a business sells during a given period.
Grammar: Usually uncountable with 'a turnover of' + amount: a turnover of two million dollars.
Patterns
- a turnover of an amount
- annual turnover
The company reported an annual turnover of fifty million dollars.
Turnover rose sharply during the holiday season.
Small shops with a turnover below the limit pay less tax.
noununcountablebusiness
The rate at which employees leave an organization and are replaced by new ones.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: staff turnover is high.
Patterns
- staff turnover
- turnover of employees
High staff turnover made it hard to keep experienced cooks.
The restaurant has a yearly turnover of nearly half its workforce.
Better pay helped reduce turnover.
nouncountable
A small pastry made by folding dough over a filling, such as fruit.
Grammar: Countable: an apple turnover, two turnovers.
Patterns
- an apple turnover
She bought an apple turnover from the bakery.
The cherry turnovers were still warm.
Word forms
| plural | turnovers |
|---|
Common combinations
- annual turnover
- Annual turnover has doubled since 2020.
- staff turnover
- Staff turnover is costly for small firms.
- a turnover of
- The firm has a turnover of two million pounds.
- high turnover
- Hospitals face high turnover among new nurses.
- reduce turnover
- Flexible hours helped reduce turnover.
Synonyms and how they differ
- revenue
- Revenue is the American word for total sales income and is more common than turnover in US business writing.
- sales
- Sales is plainer and counts only what was sold, while turnover is a formal accounting term.
- attrition
- Attrition fits the staff sense, but it often implies people are not replaced.
- churn
- Churn is more informal and often describes customers or users leaving as well as staff.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: turnover or profit?
turnover vs profit
Turnover is total sales before costs are subtracted, whereas profit is what is left after costs.
Practice
A British firm reports a turnover of 5 million pounds. This means that...
Choose one answer.
In British usage turnover is total sales value before costs. Profit is what remains after expenses, so the first option is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “turnover”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.