A slot is a narrow opening, like the one in a piece of machinery, where a part can fit snugly. It is also the name of an allocated time and place for a plane to take off or land, as authorized by airport or air traffic control officials. The word is probably derived from the verb to slot, which means to fit into something snugly, as in “The seat belt slides easily into its slot.” A slot is also the designation for a position or job, such as chief copy editor.

In video slots, players can often select the number of pay lines they want to run during a game. This is called variable paylines, and it is a feature that helps increase the chances of winning. However, it is still important to read the pay table of any slot machine before playing it. It will usually explain the pay line pattern and any special symbols that can trigger bonus features.

The term “slot” is also used to refer to the operations issue and data path machinery that surrounds a set of execution units, called a functional unit (FU). This hardware is referred to as a “slot” because each operation can be issued to any of the execution units. This is important because it allows the designers to optimize the performance of a chip. The design of the underlying slots is crucial to the success of VLIW processors, which are based on this technology.