A turkey was once a prize, not a pin pattern
In bowling, a turkey means three strikes in a row. The nickname is usually traced to prize-giving contests: bowlers who managed the difficult three-strike run could win a turkey. That origin is widely repeated, though the precise history is not firmly established.
The name is a leftover from a time when bowling contests could award food and other tangible prizes. It does not describe how the pins fall; it names the achievement—and, in the story behind the term, the reward for making it.
Why three strikes make a memorable run
A strike clears all ten pins on the first ball of a frame. Bowling’s scoring makes consecutive strikes especially valuable: each strike also counts the pins knocked down by the next two balls. With three strikes in a row, the first frame’s score depends on all three strikes, so the run builds momentum as well as points.
“Turkey” gives that streak a compact, vivid name. The term survives even though the prize-giving custom behind its usual explanation has faded: bowlers still call three consecutive strikes a turkey, whether or not there is a bird anywhere near the lanes.
