What is a Slot? A slot is an authorization for aircraft to land and take off at a specific airport. This grammatical element is a key tool in managing air traffic at busy airports. Without slots, there would be repeated delays caused by multiple flights arriving at the same time. Instead, slots allow a single aircraft to fly in and out of an airport at the same time, which allows other flights to take off and land without delays.

A slot is basically the same as a normal component except that it can encompass a portion of its content and pass other components. Because it was designed to be reused, a slot is ideal for patterns that can’t be enforced by a single “normal” component. A slot can be used to include the outside portion of a pattern and allow other components and HTML to be placed inside it. Slots allow a component to define a pattern that is not possible with any other component.

A slot can also refer to an area in a hockey rink that extends toward the blue line. The slot can also refer to an area in the rink between the faceoff circles. The word “slot” derives from the German sleutano, which means to cut. The meaning “drop a coin into a slot” dates back to 1888. In 1966, the word “slot” came to mean “to take a position in a slot.” The first sense is obsolete, while the latter is still used in some contexts.