We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
A cross on the scoresheet, recording all ten pins down with the first ball.
Also known as: Strike
An X in a frame means all ten pins fell to the first delivery. The frame's score is not settled at once: ten plus whatever the next two balls knock down, which is why a scoresheet is filled in behind the play.
Records a strike — all ten pins felled by the first ball of a frame. The playing rules define the strike and its bonus scoring; the X itself is the long-standing scoresheet convention.
Scores ten plus the pins from the next two deliveries, so three consecutive strikes are needed before a frame can reach the maximum thirty.
A capital letter X — two diagonal strokes crossing — written in the small box of a bowling frame.
The cross means all ten went down with one ball; the forward slash means it took two. They score differently: a strike carries two deliveries of bonus, a spare only one.