A narrow depression, notch, or aperture, especially one for receiving or admitting something, as a coin or a piece of mail. Also used figuratively: a position in a sequence or schedule. He hoped to be able to get his haircut in the 3pm slot at the hair salon.

In a cable street-railroad, a narrow opening between the rails through which the grip on a car passes to connect with the traveling cable.

Linguistics: a grammatical position within a construction having a specific morpheme-sequence function; in some languages, this is represented by a vertical bar or line.

A narrow, elongated gap or opening, as in a door, box, or lid; a slit; a hole. Also, the track left by a moving animal, especially a deer; a trail; a spoor.

In computer science, a space on a disk or other medium in which a file is stored, or the position in a program where a command or instruction will be executed. The term may also refer to an unused portion of a display screen or console keypad, or the place in a system for storing a program, a boot disk, or a system registry entry.

Sports: (field hockey, ice hockey) A rectangular area in front of the goal between the face-off circles on an ice hockey rink. Generally, the areas are marked with a line. Also known as the blue-line slot.

Informal: A position in a game of chance, especially one offered at a casino. Also, a position in an organization or hierarchy. The company hired him to be in the slot just below the manager.

In aviation: the allocated time for an aircraft to depart or land at an airport.

An empty position in a game or activity, such as a football match or race. Also, a position in a queue. I waited in the slot for almost two hours before getting served.

In a game of chance, the area where coins are dropped to activate the machine and begin the process of spinning reels or rolling dice. A slot may be equipped with a coin tray and/or an ejector to remove the inserted currency. A slot may also be equipped with a bell or other sound to indicate the winning sequence, or it may simply display the amount won. Some slots offer special symbols that pay anywhere on the screen, regardless of where they appear on the pay-line. Pay-tables list the possible combinations and amounts for each symbol.