A narrow notch, groove or opening, as in a keyway in machinery or a slit for a coin in a vending machine. Also: a position in a group, series or sequence.

A slot in the computer is a place where a processor can be installed and connected to the motherboard. It is similar to a socket, but differs in that it is designed for a specific type of processor and is not compatible with all types of sockets. There are several different types of slots, including ISA slots, PCI slots and AGP slots. A slot is not to be confused with a memory slot, which is used for RAM.

In football, a slot receiver is a wide receiver who is often used in the red zone and on third down. They are typically shorter and faster than traditional wide receivers. In recent years, teams have started to rely on these players more and more, as they have become the best way to get the ball to their running backs.

Traditionally, all slot machines used mechanical reels to display symbols and determine winning combinations. In the 1980s, manufacturers incorporated microprocessors into their products. These chips allowed them to assign a different probability to each symbol on each reel. The result was that the appearance of a particular symbol on the screen appeared to be much more likely than it really was.

The resulting odds were then multiplied by the number of stops on the physical reel. The result was a percentage of the total amount bet, which became known as a pay-to-player percentage or return to player percentage (RTP). This is not a guarantee that a player will win a certain amount of money, but it gives a good indication of what kind of payouts can be expected over time.

Some people let their paranoia get the better of them when they play a slot machine and believe that there is someone in a back room pulling the levers to decide who wins and who loses. While this may be an attractive idea, it is simply not true – the outcomes of slot games are determined by random number generators.

When a slot is full, the corresponding number of passengers will not be able to board. Slots are used around the world to manage airport traffic and prevent delays due to too many flights trying to take off or land at once. In addition to assigning take-off and landing slots, slot management also includes limits on the maximum number of aircraft that can be active at any one time. This is called slot coordination and is necessary to avoid large, potentially dangerous congestion. This is particularly important in high-traffic, busy international airports.