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bowling

noun

Simple meaning

A game played by rolling a ball down an alley and trying to knock over a triangular group of ten pins.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

bohling

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈboʊlɪŋ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A game played by rolling a ball down an alley and trying to knock over a triangular group of ten pins; tenpin bowling/fivepin bowling

  2. Any of several similar games played indoors or outdoors.

  3. A suburban area in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE1731).

  4. cricket

    The act of delivering a cricket ball to the batsman

  5. cricket

    The action of propelling the ball towards the batsman.

  6. ireland

    Road bowling.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A game played by rolling a ball down an alley and trying to knock over a triangular group of ten pins; tenpin bowling/fivepin bowling

Used this way, bowling is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use bowling

  • “We went bowling last night and I actually got a strike.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Game / several

bowling ballbowling club

Other combinations

bowling greenbowling alleylawn bowlingbowling leaguelike bowlingtom bowling

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • bowlnounBase word

    A round vessel that is open at the top.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • bowlernounPerson or profession

    A cricketer who delivers the ball to the batsman in cricket.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • bowling alleynounCompound term

    A building that contains several alleys for bowling.

  • bowling ballnounCompound term

    A large ball with finger holes used in the sport of bowling.

  • bowling equipmentnounCompound term

    Equipment used in bowling.

  • bowling leaguenounCompound term

    A league of bowling teams.

  • bowling pinnounCompound term

    A club-shaped wooden object used in bowling.

  • bowling scorenounCompound term

    The score in a bowling match.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.