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What is a Slot?

A narrow opening, especially in a machine or container, for receiving something such as a coin or letter.

A position or time period in which something can take place: The ice hockey game was scheduled for an early slot.

The amount of money that will be won if symbols line up on the payline of a slot machine. Each machine has its own pay table, which lists the symbols that can appear game slot and their value. Some slots have wild symbols that can replace other symbols to form a winning line. In the past, US law required that all machines have the same odds for each symbol, but nowadays, manufacturers can program a slot to weight particular symbols so they occur more frequently than others.

In computing, a term for the operation issue and data path machinery surrounding a set of one or more execution units that share these resources. The word is a portmanteau of the words instruction and pipeline. It is used in very long instruction word (VLIW) computers.

A position in a series or sequence of operations, especially an allocation of work: She was given the slot as chief copy editor.

In football, a receiver who is positioned close to the line of scrimmage and typically plays wide receiver in nickel and dime packages. Slot receivers are usually shorter and faster than traditional wide receivers, making them difficult for opposing defenses to cover. They have become increasingly important as offenses shift to more multiple receiver/back formations.