Originally Posted by Glacern  The "angle" describes the asymmetric design of the bearing races.
A standard radial bearing is designed to take radial force. A thrust bearing is designed to take axial force. An angular contact bearing is designed to take both.
The "races" are the rings that sandwich the balls. A radial bearing has symmetric races, whereas angular contact bearings have asymmetric races.
In the drawing below, you can see how the bearing is designed to take radial force and axial force in the left to right direction. The gold part is the ball cage, which evenly separates the balls, and isn't important for this discussion.
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I read something similar on WIKI but didn't really got it, your explanation filled the gap
Thanks
Yovav