[6] Originally, pins were inch-thick dowels, resembling candles, thought to give rise to the name, candlepins.

[6] In 1965, the World Candlepin Bowling Council (WCPC) began its Hall of Fame, inducting WCVB commentator Don Gillis in 1987.

[6] In 1973, station WHDH began airing Candlepins for Cash, allowing contestants to earn a jackpot by rolling a strike.

The lane is separated from the approach by a "foul line" common to most bowling sports, which players must not cross.

The pin plate can be made from hard-surfaced metal, phenolic, high density plastic, or a synthetic material.

A heavy rubber backstop, faced with a black curtain, catches the flying pins and balls so they drop into the pit.

The candlepins themselves are 15+3⁄4 inches (40 cm) tall, have a cylindrical shape which tapers equally towards each end (and therefore have no distinct "top" or "bottom" end, unlike a tenpin), giving them an overall appearance somewhat like a candle, and have a maximum weight of 2 lb 8 oz (1.1 kg) apiece.

To count, the pin must be knocked over entirely; in unlucky circumstances, a pin may wobble furiously, or even more frustratingly, be "kicked" to the side by several inches, yet come to rest upright, thus not being scored (or reset to its original position for any remaining throws, though it may be knocked over by subsequent balls).

Depending on where the fallen pins are located on the pindeck and their angle(s) after their movement ceases, the wood can be a major help, or obstacle—partly due to the ball having nearly the same weight as one candlepin—in trying to knock down every single standing pin for either a spare or "ten-box" score in completing a round.

If all three balls are needed to knock all the pins down, the score for that frame is simply ten, and known in New England as a ten-box.

A foul (scored by an F on some computer scoring systems) refers to a ball that first rolls into the gutter and then strikes deadwood (felled pins resting in the gutter) or hops out of the gutter and strikes a standing pin, a "lob"-bed ball that touches neither the approach nor lane in the three meters' distance of lanebed before the lob line, or as in tenpins and duckpins, a roll made when a bowler's foot crosses over the foot foul line.

Knocking down all ten pins after resetting immediately following a foul in the first ball results in a spare.

Before the era of the Bowl-Mor powered pinsetter units' debut in 1949,[15] as with ten-pin, candlepins were set by workers called "pinboys".

If a player fells all ten pins in a single box with two or less throws (just as in tenpins) bonuses are awarded for a strike or spare.

A strike is achieved with just the first delivery downing all ten pins, with a spare needing two throws, again just as in the tenpin sport.

If a strike is recorded, opposing corners of the left-hand square are similarly colored in, while leaving sufficient space between the "filled-in" opposing corners, to record the score from the two succeeding balls' "fill" total for the strike.

Correct calculation of bonus points can be a bit tricky, especially when combinations of strikes and spares come in successive boxes.

The bowler needs to press a button at the end of the ball return to receive a new "rack" of pins.

Many candlepin terms denote combinations of pins left standing after the first ball has been rolled.

Examples of these terms include:[17] In The New York Times, reviewer Cathleen Schine called Elizabeth McCracken's 2019 novel Bowlaway "a history of New England's candlepin bowling", the sport serving as "the novel's unlikely, crashing, arrhythmic leitmotif".