Word.ws English Dictionary

bowl

UK/bəʊl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Southern England[bɒʊ̯ɫ]

bowl noun: as much as is held by a bowl.

bowl: a roughly hemispherical container used to hold, mix, prepare or present food, such as salad, fruit...
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

bowl (plural bowls)

  1. As much as is held by a bowl.
    • You can’t have any more soup – you’ve had three bowls already.
    Synonyms:
    bowlful
  2. A dish comprising a mix of different foods served in a bowl, usually named after the base ingredient at the bottom or after a different dish that it simulates.
    • This restaurant offers a number of different bowls.
    • açai bowl, rice bowl, sushi bowl
  3. The non-mesh outer-container part of a salad spinner.
  4. The round container surface of a mortar (hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle).
  5. A water bowl, such as for a pet.
  6. One of the seven bowls of water used as ceremonial offerings in Buddhist practice.
  7. One of the seven bowls representing plagues described in Revelations in Christian theology.
  8. The round hollow part of anything; anything shaped like a bowl.
    • Dig out a bowl in the ground.
    1. The part of a spoon that holds content, as opposed to the handle.
    2. The part of a cup that holds a liquid, as opposed to the handle.
    3. The surface of a sink that receives liquid and has a drain.
    4. The spinning core of a centrifugal separator.
    5. Part of a pipe, bong, or other smoking implement that holds the material to be burned.
      • 195. Old German Pipe-Bowl ; carved wood ; design in front of bowl – the letters P K K surrounded by a wreath ; lid wanting. Switzerland.1882, Edwin Atlee Barber, Catalogue of the Collection of Tobacco Pipes Deposited by Edwin A. Barber, page 11
    6. The quantity of burnable content to be consumed in a pipe or bong.
      • Let's smoke a bowl!
      • Purple smoke is no joke. Especially when it is real purple. The smell, taste, and high is easily one of the best in the world. One bowl of some purple Kush, and I'm done for a couple of hours.2010, Mark Arax, West of the West, page 221
    7. A round vessel used in various occult, spiritual or divinatory practices.
    8. A rounded portion of a glyph that encloses empty space, as in the letters d and o.
    9. A round crater (or similar) in the ground; a region shaped like a bowl.
    10. An elliptical-shaped stadium or amphitheater resembling a bowl.
    11. (broadly) A postseason football competition, a bowl game (i.e. Rose Bowl, Super Bowl).
    12. A haircut in which straight hair is cut at an even height around the edges, forming an overturned-bowl shape.
    13. A singing bowl.
    14. A begging bowl

Noun (2)

bowl (plural bowls)

  1. (bowls) The ball rolled by players in the game of lawn bowls.
  2. The action of bowling a ball.

Verb

bowl (third-person singular simple present bowls, present participle bowling, simple past and past participle bowled)

  1. (transitive) To roll or throw (a ball) in the correct manner in cricket and similar games and sports.
    • Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, / And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
  2. (intransitive) To throw the ball (in cricket and similar games and sports).
  3. (intransitive) To play bowling or a similar game.
  4. To roll or carry smoothly on, or as on, wheels.
    • We were bowled rapidly along the road.
    • On busy days, they also may be seen bowling along the Brighton main line, north of Keymer Junction, with a relief Newhaven boat express, […].1950 November, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Southern England”, in Railway Magazine, page 772
  5. To pelt or strike with anything rolled.
    • Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth, / And bowled to death with turnips.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

bowl meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

bowl in Hindi

container for food
कटोरा kaṭorā, कटोरी kaṭorī
dish comprising a mix of different foods
थाली thālī

bowl in Tamil

container for food
கிண்ணம் kiṇṇam

bowl in Marathi

कटोरी, गोलंदाजी करणे, गोलंदाजी करण्यासाठी

bowl in Urdu

container for food
پْیالَہ pyāla, پْیالا pyālā
More languagesFewer languages
bowl in Bengali
বাটি baṭi
bowl in Telugu
పాత్ర pātra
bowl in Malayalam
കോപ്പ kōppa, പുടകം puṭakaṁ
bowl in Kannada
ಬೋಗುಣಿ, ಆಳವಾದ ಪಾತ್ರೆ, ಬೋಗುಣಿಯಲ್ಲಿನ ಪದಾರ್ಥ, ಚೆಂಡು
bowl in Punjabi
ਪਿਆਲਾ piālā
bowl in Gujarati
વાટકું napũsakliṅg
bowl in Odia
ଡାକିବା ḍākibā
bowl in Sanskrit
कुण्ड kuṇḍa, कपाल kapā́la
bowl in Assamese
বাটি bati
bowl in Nepali
कटोरी, कटोरा, कचौरा
bowl in Pashto
پياله pyālá
bowl in Tagalog
mangkok, huwataw
bowl in Arabic
زِبْدِيَّة zibdiyya, سُلْطَانِيَّة sulṭāniyya, زُبْدِيَّة zubdiyya
bowl in Malay
mangkuk
bowl in Indonesian
mangkok, mangkuk
bowl in Thai
ชาม chaam, ถ้วย tûai
bowl in Vietnamese
bát, chén, tô, đọi
bowl in Myanmar
ခွက် hkwak, ဖလား hpa.la:
Dzongkha
གཞོངམ gzhongm

Examples of bowl in a sentence

  • Put the berries into a cheesecloth and wring the juice into a bowl.
  • He bowled a record twelve maiden overs in his spell of 8-33 in 21 overs.
  • Combine the milk and the hot water in a large bowl.

All 40 example sentences with bowl

Synonyms of bowl

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of bowl

Forms of bowl

Noun
pluralbowls
Verb
third-person singular presentbowls
present participlebowling
past participlebowled
pastbowled

Past tense of bowl: bowled

Plural of bowl: bowls

Origin of bowl

From Middle English bolle, from Old English bolla, bolle (“bowl, cup, pot, beaker, measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bollā, from Proto-Germanic *bullǭ (“ball, round vessel, bowl”). Cognate with North Frisian bol (“bun, bread roll”), Middle Low German bolle, bole (“round object”), Dutch bol (“ball, sphere, scoop, dot”), German Bolle (“bulb”), Danish bolle (“bowl, bread roll”), Icelandic bolli (“cup”). Doublet of boule and pulla.

From Middle English bowle, boule, from Old French boule (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“bubble, stud, round object”). Doublet of poll.

Words formed from bowl

Phrases with bowl

34 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bowl

47 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bowl

What does bowl mean?
Bowl means as much as is held by a bowl.
What is bowl in Hindi?
Bowl in Hindi is कटोरा (kaṭorā), कटोरी (kaṭorī), थाली (thālī). See Bowl meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is bowl?
Bowl can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce bowl?
Bowl is pronounced /bəʊl/ (UK).
What is the plural of bowl?
The plural of bowl is bowls.

Words near bowl in the dictionary

  1. bowking
  2. bowkite
  3. bowknot
  4. bowknots
  5. bowks
  6. bowl
  7. bowl a googly
  8. bowl along
  9. bowl barrow
  10. bowl barrows
  11. bowl chair

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bowl (page history and authors); bowl (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); বাটি (Bengali) (page history and authors); పాత్ర (Telugu) (page history and authors); കോപ്പ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); bowl (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); વાટકું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଡାକିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); कपाल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); bowl (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bowl.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bowl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bowl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.