1
: a bottle-shaped bowling pin 15 inches high
2
tenpins plural in form but singular in construction
: a bowling game using 10 tenpins and a large ball 27 inches in circumference and allowing each player to bowl 2 balls in each of 10 frames
Examples of tenpin in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Such winds could result in the lifting of unsecured objects off the ground, knocking people about in the vicinity like tenpins, and kicking up enough dust to cause brownout visibility.
—
New Atlas, 12 Jan. 2025
The familiar rituals of a Wednesday night were playing out at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, with 22 lanes of tenpin and a restaurant serving nachos and wings.
—Michael Levenson, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2023
Every other lane was available at both Greenmount and Thunderhead, for duckpin and tenpin bowling, since alleys are operating at 50% capacity amid the pandemic, and masks were required unless people were eating or drinking.
—Pat Stoetzer, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 31 Dec. 2020
Perfect scores of 300 in tenpins are rare, but not that rare.
—baltimoresun.com, 11 Apr. 2018
But regardless, duckpin bowling, with smaller pins and balls than the more traditional tenpins, was a regional obsession, played by thousands who flocked to their neighborhood lanes at seemingly every free moment.
—Chris Kaltenbach, baltimoresun.com, 2 Aug. 2017
The Weber Cup — the tenpin bowling equivalent of the Ryder Cup — was started in 2000 (the Europeans now dominate the Americans in that one, too).
—Christopher Clarey, New York Times, 25 Sep. 2016
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New Atlas, 12 Jan. 2025
The familiar rituals of a Wednesday night were playing out at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, with 22 lanes of tenpin and a restaurant serving nachos and wings.
—Michael Levenson, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2023
Every other lane was available at both Greenmount and Thunderhead, for duckpin and tenpin bowling, since alleys are operating at 50% capacity amid the pandemic, and masks were required unless people were eating or drinking.
—Pat Stoetzer, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 31 Dec. 2020
Perfect scores of 300 in tenpins are rare, but not that rare.
—baltimoresun.com, 11 Apr. 2018
But regardless, duckpin bowling, with smaller pins and balls than the more traditional tenpins, was a regional obsession, played by thousands who flocked to their neighborhood lanes at seemingly every free moment.
—Chris Kaltenbach, baltimoresun.com, 2 Aug. 2017
The Weber Cup — the tenpin bowling equivalent of the Ryder Cup — was started in 2000 (the Europeans now dominate the Americans in that one, too).
—Christopher Clarey, New York Times, 25 Sep. 2016
Cite this Entry
“Tenpin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenpin. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
tenpin
noun
ten·pin
ˈten-ˌpin 
1
: a large bottle-shaped bowling pin
2
plural
: a bowling game using 10 tenpins and a large ball
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