juncture

noun

1. a point of time, especially one made critical or important by a concurrence of circumstances: At this juncture, we must decide whether to stay or to walk out.
2. a serious state of affairs; crisis: The matter has reached a juncture and a decision must be made.
3. the line or point at which two bodies are joined; joint or articulation; seam.
4. the act of joining.
5. the state of being joined.
6. something by which two things are joined.
7. Phonetics.
   1. a pause or other phonological feature or modification of a feature, as the lengthening of a preceding phoneme or the strengthening of a following one, marking a transition or break between sounds, especially marking the phonological boundary of a word, clause, or sentence: it is present in such words as night-rate and re-seed and absent in such words as nitrate and recede.Compare close juncture, open juncture, terminal juncture.
   2. the point in a word or group of words at which such a pause or other junctural marker occurs.

noun

1. a point in time, esp a critical one (often in the phrase at this juncture)
2. linguistics
   1. a pause in speech or a feature of pronunciation that introduces, accompanies, or replaces a pause
   2. the set of phonological features signalling a division between words, such as those that distinguish a name from an aim
3. a less common word for junction

n.

1. The point, line, or surface of union of two parts.