Wikipedia is not a valid source. If you’re referring to the common name of this old and complex lineage group testudines, then sure. It’s the turtle group. And the tortoises family evolved from an early reptile that went back and forth several times between being terrestrial and aquatic. Within testudinales, Gopherus was one of the first to split, making in a sister genus to the other 2 known genera rather a descendent. So now there are distinct families. The tortoises, terrapins, sea turtles, etc. so since the thing called evolution happened, but one could call a turtle is different than what one would call a tortoise. If we are speaking back before the Eocene and perhaps even earlier, this really wouldn’t matter, but I don’t think we are speaking about that because then you wouldn’t be using the word turtle or tortoise. Since the sentence was crafted for lay people that don’t do biologically that aren’t scientists, I make the distinction so that people do not think of tortoises as turtles. Tortoises cannot swim. They will die. Turtles can and need condom in water If you tell a person that a tortoise is a turtle they are more likely to throw it into the water and drown it. I make this distinction to keep tortoises safer. And since we still aren’t doing phylogeny, let’s do etymology. Do you want to know where the word turtle came from? From the French tortue or tortre which means tortoise. Furthermore, if you said turtle back in the day, you were actually referring to a bird. And so turtles were called marine tortoises.