bowling

/ˈboʊlɪŋ/noun, verb

bowling is spelled B-O-W-L-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bowling means “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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in bowling?

Letters	7: B-O-W-L-I-N-G
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Rhymes with	controlling scrolling trolling patrolling
Same letters	blowing

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is bowling?

Bowling appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.

bowling0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce bowling?

UK /ˈbəʊlɪŋ/
UK [ˈbɒʊɫɪŋ]
US /ˈboʊlɪŋ/

Bowling has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-ca-bowling.ogg, En-au-bowling.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with bowling?

4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bowling from its last stressed vowel (/oʊlɪŋ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: blowing.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

What does bowling mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

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
Candlepin bowling.
3
Any of several similar games played indoors or outdoors.
4
The action of propelling the ball towards the batsman.
5
slangA particular style of walking associated with urban street culture.
6
The action of the verb bowl.
7
IrelandRoad bowling.

verb

1
present participle and gerund of bowl (a form of bowl)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bowling in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	bowling (a game played by rolling a ball down an alley)
German	Bowling (a game played by rolling a ball down an alley), Kegeln (several similar games)
Portuguese	boliche, bólingue (a game played by rolling a ball down an alley)
Spanish	bolos, boliche, bowling (a game played by rolling a ball down an alley)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.