What Is a Slot?

A slot is a dynamic placeholder that waits for content to be called out to it. It is essentially an element of a content page that allows you to manage the flow of content on your website. Slots and renderers work in tandem with each other. Renderers specify how the contents of a slot are displayed; slots are essentially containers that can hold one type of content.

A narrow notch or groove, as a keyway in a piece of machinery or a slit for a coin in a vending machine. The term also refers to an assigned position in a group, sequence or series. Examples of such positions include a particular job or the location for a new plant.

In slot machines, a player inserts cash or, in ticket-in, ticket-out machines, a paper ticket with a barcode into a slot on the machine to activate a rotating reel and then stop it to rearrange the symbols. When a winning combination is made, the player receives credits according to a pay table. Some machines allow the player to choose which or how many of the available pay lines they wish to wager on, while others automatically wager on all paylines.

In computer hardware, a slot is a place for an expansion card such as an ISA or PCI (peripheral component interconnect) slot. It may also refer to a memory slot on a motherboard. The word is also used to describe an area in front of the face-off circles on an ice hockey rink.