A slot is a narrow depression, perforation, notch, or aperture, especially one designed for the reception of a piece fitting into it. The program was put into a new time slot on the broadcasting schedule. The boxer was given the opportunity to fight in a high-profile slot at the weigh-ins. He walked away with his first professional win.

A slot can also refer to:

(slang, US, informal) The position in a line up or queue for a particular event, activity, or occasion. I was hoping to get a haircut during the afternoon, but I missed the 2 p.m. slot.

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

The interior opening in a copy desk, occupied by the chief copy editor. The person holding that slot is in charge of the entire department.

A narrow opening in a door, window, or box. An implement for barring, bolting, or locking a door, box, gate, or lid. A slot in a road or path, or a space between posts, especially on a railway carriage.

An elongated depression or groove in the side of a vehicle, ship, boat, or airplane. A place for receiving a coin or a letter, or a hole in a fence or door. A vacancy in a position, such as the job of a newspaper’s chief copy editor.

In linguistics, a position in a construction into which any of a set of morphemes can fit. Compare rim (def 2).

An area of the rotor or stator of a machine for ventilation and insertion of windings. An empty area of the rotor or stator, into which windings can be inserted. (electrical) An elongated opening in the armature of a motor for admitting windings.

A position in a computer file or database in which a record is to be stored or displayed. Also, a space in the corresponding row of data in a table.

In computing, a slot is an allocated amount of memory, storage, or bandwidth that can be used by a process. The number of slots available in a system can vary greatly, depending on the type of hardware and operating system. When a process needs more memory or bandwidth than it has available, it may need to allocate a larger amount of resources from the system and occupy more slots in order to continue processing data. Alternatively, the process may need to run in a privileged mode and use fewer slots. A slot is a container for variables that control and limit the scope of the process’s access to resources. A slot can be either a static resource, a variable-sized fixed-size variable, or a combination of both. A slot can be defined by its name or by a function that takes arguments and returns a value. A variable-sized slot is called a parameter. A fixed-size slot is a field in the corresponding variable’s definition.