A thin opening or groove in something, such as the slot on a door or the one through which postcards are put at the post office. Also, a machine where coins or paper tickets with barcodes are inserted to receive credit for a certain number of spins. The Liberty Bell machine manufactured by Charles Fey in 1899 is now a California Historical Landmark. Digital technology has allowed slot machines to have many different variations in their game play, including bonus rounds and more varied video graphics.

In professional football, a slotback is a wide receiver who lines up closer to the quarterback than other players and is mostly used in pass-heavy offenses. Examples of former and current slotbacks include Darren Sproles, Larry Fitzgerald, and Christian McCaffrey. The first thing players should do before playing a slot is to read the pay table. This will list all the regular symbols and how much you can win if you land (typically) three or more matching symbols on a payline. It will also list any special symbols in the game, like wild or scatter symbols, and how much they pay out if you land them. In addition, the pay table will indicate whether or not the slot has any bonus features and what they are. Some bonus features will require a specific combination of symbols to trigger, and others are random, such as the awarding of a jackpot when the reels stop spinning.