The word slot has several meanings. It originally referred to the hollow at the base of the throat above the breastbone. The noun “slot” is derived from the Middle English slod, which has a related meaning of “hole.” In other contexts, slot refers to a job opening or an assignment. For example, the chief copy editor occupies a job slot on the Gazette. A slot is also the area between two faceoff circles; the area is sometimes called the scoring zone.
In hockey, the slot refers to a rectangular area that extends toward the blue line. The fourth position in a flying display, the slot can be used for either field hockey or ice hockey. The word “slot” is related to the Italian verb sleutano, which means “to sleuth”. The term is also cognate to the German Schloss. In the world of artificial intelligence, slot is an important concept to understand.
The term slot is also used for a slot’s expansion card. There are four main types of expansion slots: PCI, ISA, AGP, and memory slots. The definition of a motherboard contains a visual example of all of these types of slots. However, there are other kinds of slots, such as the eGPU (electronic gaming processor).