A slot is a narrow opening, especially one for receiving something such as coins or paper. A slot can also be a position or place.

Sports The slot corner is a defensive back that is assigned to cover the slot receiver on offense. The slot corner must be well conditioned and have excellent athletic ability to cover the quick slot receivers who catch the ball all over the field. This is a key position in every defense, and the slot corner must be aware of the receiver’s route pattern and be able to anticipate where the receiver will go with the ball.

In electromechanical slot machines, tilts would cause a circuit to break and trigger an alarm. While modern machines no longer use tilt switches, a similar problem can occur if the machine is tilted or otherwise tampered with. A malfunction called a “tilt” is often caused by a door switch that is stuck in the open position or other mechanical problems that could affect the operation of the machine.

In aviation, a slot is an authorization for a commercial aircraft to take off or land at an airport at a specific time. This is used to avoid delays due to too many flights trying to land or take off at the same time. Slots are usually awarded to large international airlines that have the most frequent scheduled operations. However, small regional airlines may also get slots if they have sufficient traffic to justify it.