A slot is a narrow opening into which something else can be fitted. It can also refer to a position in a group, series or sequence. The word comes from the Middle Low German schot and is cognate with Dutch slotte.
The term ‘slot’ can also be used to refer to a particular position on the wing of an aircraft or to a location on a piece of machinery. It is also sometimes used to describe the position of an axis on a device such as a keyboard or mouse.
In the context of gambling, a slot is a place in a machine where a coin or other currency can be inserted. The amount of money that can be won is specified on the machine’s pay table, which is usually shown on a screen above the reels. In modern video slots, the pay table can be accessed by clicking on an icon on the screen or via a help menu.
Many modern slot machines are categorised by their volatility, which measures the frequency of wins compared to losses over time. This can be a useful statistic for players who want to try and predict whether a slot is likely to have a high or low payout. High Volatility slots tend to pay out more often but may not be as big as other slots.
The pay table on a slot machine contains information about all the possible symbols and how much the player can win for landing them on a pay line. The pay table typically shows a picture of each symbol alongside how much the player can win for matching them. Depending on the type of slot machine, the pay table may also include special symbols that can substitute for other ones to form a winning combination. On older machines, the pay table is displayed on the face of the machine, above and below the area containing the reels. On video slots, it is usually found within a help menu or on the main screen of the game.
In American football, a slot receiver is a wide receiver who lines up outside the numbers and is not expected to cover much ground on defenses. They are often used to stretch the defense by running shorter routes on the route tree such as slants or quick outs. In contrast, boundary receivers are more likely to run deeper routes and can break tackles.
In the world of HTML, a slot is a dynamic placeholder that waits for content to be added to it (a passive slot) or calls out to the renderer to add it to the page (an active slot). For more information about working with slots, see the ATG Personalization Programming Guide. The following are some common collocations of slot.