Bowling lingo!
Hollywood Bowl is officially expanding tenpin bowling's 130+ year old terms with the launch of 'Bowlingo' - a glossary of brand-new lane lingo for the moments that happen during every visit to the bowling alley
Sixty-five years after tenpin bowling first rolled into the UK, Brits are striking back by exporting a unique - and cheeky - British twist on the game.
The iconic pastime is one of the UK's fastest-growing sports with one in three Brits playing regularly. With global interest in European sporting language at an all-time high following the recent football World Cup, and the rapidly rising popularity of bowling, the UK's leading tenpin bowling brand, Hollywood Bowl, is expanding the classic US bowling lexicon and creating a cheeky UK-focused new set of phrases, dubbed 'Bowlingo'.
While first-known glossary of bowling terms was published in 1892 in Spalding's Athletic Library, authored by A.E. Vogel, the new 2026 'Bowlingo' glossary is rooted in fast-moving social media trends and popular terms.
Among the humorous new idioms are 'The Aura Check', 'Monday Morning' and 'Podcast Energy'.
Dr.Christopher Strelluf, SFHEA, Head of Applied Linguistics at Warwick University explains that ''When people play games together, they also play with words. The new bowlingo shows the linguistic creativity that people bring to bowling. Words like ''delulu'' and ''ghosting'' were themselves coined and spread as creative ways to share our social experiences. Now bowlers are playfully extending those new words to capture the experience of sport. It hurts a lot when a person ghosts us. It also hurts - maybe a little less - when pins ghost us. When people come together to enjoy sport, linguistic creativity makes language part of the fun.''
The ten new bowlingo phrases
1. The Delulu: A player who genuinely believes they're about to bowl a perfect game... despite the scoreboard saying otherwise.
2. The Clean Sheet: A flawless game where every frame is cleared without a pin left standing.
3. No Notes: A bowler who delivers the perfect shot without fuss or fanfare.
4. Plot Twist: When someone starts badly but stages an unexpected comeback to steal the win.
5. Aura Check: The all-important walk back from the lane after releasing your ball - confidence gained or lost in an instant.
6. Main Character: Three strikes in a row followed by celebrations worthy of an Olympic gold medal.
7. Ghosted: When your ball travels all the way down the lane and every single pin completely ignores it.
8. Podcast Energy: All the confidence, all the advice... and none of the bowling ability to back it up.
9. The Trailer: An impressive run-up that ends in a thoroughly underwhelming shot.
10. Monday Morning: The painfully awkward silence as everyone watches a disappointing bowl slowly make its way down the lane.
David Williams, Operations Director at Hollywood Bowl, who first identified and recorded the new lexicon of phrases, said: ''Over the last 60 years bowling has developed some iconic vocabulary such as Turkey, Bedposts, Chicken Wing. These terms are genuinely legendary. But when you spend as much time as we do watching people bowl, you realise there are so many brilliant moments the dictionary just hasn't caught up with yet. Bowlingo is our way of giving those moments the recognition they deserve. Whether you're pulling a 'Main Character' or delivering 'Podcast Energy', there's now a word for it and we want everyone to come and find out which Bowlingo term their game earns.''
With National Bowling Day falling on Saturday August 8, Hollywood Bowl is inviting the nation to visit their local centre and discover which Bowlingo term best describes their game - and even add to the Bowlingo dictionary with their own phrases.
Ready to go? Book your game at Hollywood Bowl here!
