This article is about bowling in general. For specific types of bowling, see Ten-pin bowling, Duckpin bowling, Candlepin bowling, Nine-pin bowling, and Five-pin bowling. For other uses of the term, see Bowling (disambiguation)

Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls or throws a bowling ball toward pins or another target.
In pin bowling, the goal is to knock over pins at the end of a lane, with either two or three balls per frame allowed to knock down all pins. A strike is achieved when all the pins are knocked down on the first roll, and a spare is achieved all the pins are knocked over on a second roll. Lanes have wood or synthetic surfaces onto which oil is applied in different oil patterns. Common types of pin bowling include ten-pin, candlepin, duckpin, nine-pin, and five-pin bowling.
In target bowling, the aim is usually to get the ball as close to a mark as possible. The surface may be grass, gravel, or a synthetic surface. Bowls, skittles, kegel, bocce, carpet bowls, pétanque, and boules may have both indoor and outdoor varieties.
Bowling is played by 100 million people in more than 90 countries (including 70 million in the United States), and is the subject of video games.
In the U.S. and Canada, the term bowling usually refers to ten-pin bowling, whereas in the U.K. and Commonwealth countries the term often denotes lawn bowls.