The Game » Glossary

Here you can find a glossary of bowlingterms sorted by alphabet. You can choose a letter of the alphabet by clicking on one of the letters in the menu below. He and his should be read as 'he and his or she and her' throughout this glossary.

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• Safe zone
  The area on the ball from one inch inside the vertical axis line to a line from the bowlers PAP to the ring finger and from the PAP to the equator, in which the pin of a ball can be placed safely without the track and holes interfering with one another.

• Shell
  The outer portion of a bowling ball surrounding the core.

• Shiny
  A ball that looks glossy. In general, shiny balls are smoother textured.

• Skid
  The portion of the bowling balls path in which the velocity of the contact point on the ball is greater than zero and the ball is therefore actually not rolling but is instead sliding down the lane.

• Sleeper
  See double wood.

• Slots
  See blocked.

• Snap
  A ball path which has a sharp, defined breakpoint. However, when referring to the actual break point, the term snap is often used as a quantifying term.

• Span
  Distance from edge of thumb hole nearest to the center, to the edge of finger holes nearest to the center.

• Squeezer
  Someone who holds on to the ball with excessive force or muscle. Also known as gripper.

• Squirt
  The action of a bowling ball as it hydroplanes past its breakpoint.