tipping point

tipping point (plural tipping points)

1. (catastrophe theory) The point at which a slow, reversible change becomes irreversible, often with dramatic consequences.
   • 2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer‎:

     It is impossible to see inside the mind of a killer. What was he thinking, the young man who sat at the wheel of the white van at the top of Las Ramblas and purposefully revved the engine? What warped ideology, what distorted belief system, what bitter life experience had brought him to this fateful tipping point?

2. The point in time at which some new technology becomes mainstream.

• catastrophe theory
• critical point
• watershed moment