A slit or other narrow opening, especially one for receiving something, such as a coin or letter. Also: a position in a series or sequence; an assignment; a job opening. Synonyms: vacancy, place, position, window, spot, berth

A slot is an area within the wing of an airplane that can be used to hold a control device such as an aileron or flap. It allows air to flow over and around the device without causing drag.

When playing a slot machine, players insert cash or, in “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, a paper ticket with a barcode into a designated slot on the machine. A spin button or lever then activates the reels, which stop to rearrange symbols based on the pay table. A winning combination of symbols triggers a payout. Bonus features and other game rules vary from slot to slot.

Many people believe that the number of times a symbol appears on the paytable correlates to its probability on a physical reel. However, microprocessors inside slot machines allow manufacturers to weight certain symbols so that they appear more frequently than others, even though they may not be as frequent on the reel. This can make it look like a particular symbol is so close to landing on the payline that it’s almost guaranteed to appear. Modern video slots typically have representations of five or more reels on a video screen and often feature scatter pays and bonus rounds. In addition, the pay tables usually clearly explain how to trigger the different features.