Bowling Vocabulary Worksheet

Press Print worksheet to match twelve bowling terms, from strike and spare to gutter, to their meanings.

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All 36 terms

Key bowling words 12

bowler A person who takes turns rolling at the targets. "Each bowler chose a ball from the rack."
bowling A game of rolling a heavy ball at standing targets. "We went bowling for her birthday."
bowling alley An indoor hall built for playing this game. "The bowling alley was full on Saturday night."
bowling ball The heavy sphere with holes for a thumb and two fingers. "This bowling ball is too heavy for me."
foul line The mark a player must not step past when rolling. "His toe slid over the foul line."
frame Any one of a game's ten scoring turns. "She led by four after the third frame."
gutter The trough along each side that catches stray balls. "The ball slid into the gutter halfway down."
lane The long strip of floor that the ball travels down. "Our lane was the one by the wall."
pin A bottle-shaped target, set up in a triangle of ten. "One pin wobbled but stayed up."
spare All ten down, but only after the second ball. "He picked up a spare in the last turn."
split Standing targets separated by a hole where others fell. "The split left one on each side."
strike A clean sweep of all ten with the opening ball. "A strike on her first try made everyone cheer."

Show all 36 terms (24 more)

Scoring words 12

double A pair of strikes, one right after the other. "He opened the game with a double."
foul A roll that counts for nothing because of a misstep. "The buzzer sounded for a foul."
game One full round of ten turns for each player. "We had time for one more game."
gutter ball A roll that drops off the side and hits nothing. "My first roll of the night was a gutter ball."
handicap Extra points added to even out players' skill levels. "With her handicap the two scores were level."
open frame A turn that leaves at least one target standing. "An open frame cost him the lead."
perfect game 300 points, the most possible: every roll a strike. "Nobody at our lanes has rolled a perfect game."
pin count The number knocked over by a single roll. "A pin count of nine left one to clear."
score sheet A printed grid for recording each turn's points. "She kept the score sheet from her best night."
strike out To close out the last turns with perfect rolls only. "She had to strike out to win."
tenth frame The last turn, which can earn up to three rolls. "He needed a strike in the tenth frame."
turkey Three strikes back to back. "Her turkey lit up the screen."

Play, gear and kinds of bowling 12

aim To line up a roll with the spot you want to hit. "He took his time to aim."
bowl To send a ball rolling along the floor at a target. "She likes to bowl with her left hand."
bowling shoes The special footwear a player wears for this sport. "We swapped our sneakers for bowling shoes."
candlepin bowling A kind with tall, thin targets and a small ball, no holes. "Candlepin bowling felt strange with such a light ball."
duckpin bowling A kind with short, squat targets and a small ball. "The party room had two lanes for duckpin bowling."
five-pin bowling A kind from Canada with a hand-sized ball. "Her cousins in Canada play five-pin bowling."
follow-through The arm's continuing swing after the ball is let go. "Her follow-through ended with her hand by her ear."
lawn bowls Played on grass: roll your ball nearest a small white one. "Her grandfather plays lawn bowls on Sundays."
ninepins A kind of the game played mostly in Europe. "The village inn had a lane for ninepins."
pocket The exact spot where a hit is likeliest to clear all ten. "The ball curved into the pocket."
tenpin bowling The most common kind, played with a large ball with holes. "Tenpin bowling was on television that night."
topple To tip over and fall. "The last one took a second to topple."

How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-12. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day in two references: the entry for the term in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, and the entry in the Cambridge Dictionary (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/). Score sheet was read under scoresheet, bowling shoes under bowling shoe, five-pin bowling under fivepin bowling and lawn bowls under bowls. Where a dictionary has no entry or no sense of the game, the reference is an article of English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Glossary of bowling for spare, split, turkey, double, perfect game, pocket, foul, open frame, pin count, strike out, handicap, follow-through and the tenth frame; Tenpin bowling for gutter; Tenpin bowling, Candlepin bowling, Duckpin bowling, Five-pin bowling, Nine-pin bowling and Bowls for the games they are named after; Bowling ball for which balls have finger holes. Gutter ball and bowling shoes rest on their Wiktionary entries alone. The answers under the list rest on the articles Tenpin bowling, Candlepin bowling, Duckpin bowling and Five-pin bowling. The sentence in quotation marks after each meaning is our own. Licence: own work

How it works

This bowling vocabulary worksheet prints twelve terms down the left and their meanings, mixed up, down the right. It opens on key words such as strike, spare and frame. Two more sets cover scoring, then play, gear and kinds.

Read the full guide

Key bowling words, from strike to foul line

Set opens on Key bowling words: bowling, pin, lane, gutter, strike, spare, frame, bowler, bowling ball, split, foul line and bowling alley. Scoring words runs from turkey, double and perfect game to score sheet and strike out.

Play, gear and kinds, from candlepin to lawn bowls

The third set prints bowl, aim, pocket, follow-through, topple, bowling shoes, tenpin bowling, candlepin bowling, duckpin bowling, five-pin bowling, ninepins and lawn bowls. Under the tool each term has a sentence from a night at the lanes, such as "His toe slid over the foul line."

The meanings say target where you might expect pin, so that word is not given away.

Questions and answers

What is the highest score in bowling?

300 in tenpin bowling. It takes twelve strikes, one after another in a single game, and such a game is called a perfect game.

How many pins are there in bowling?

Ten in tenpin bowling, set in four rows that form a triangle. Candlepin and duckpin bowling use ten as well. Five-pin bowling has five, set in a V.

How is a strike scored in bowling?

A strike scores ten plus the pins knocked down by the next two rolls. A spare scores ten plus the pins of the next roll only.

What is candlepin bowling?

A kind of bowling played mainly in New England and the Maritime provinces of Canada. The pins are tall and thin, the ball is small with no finger holes, and a bowler gets three rolls in a frame, not two.

All 36 terms

Key bowling words 12

Scoring words 12

Play, gear and kinds of bowling 12

How it works

Key bowling words, from strike to foul line

Play, gear and kinds, from candlepin to lawn bowls

Questions and answers

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