Slot

How to spell slot

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce slot

What does slot mean?

1. nounA long narrow opening or groove into which something can be inserted.
2. nounAn assigned position or period of time within a schedule or sequence.
3. verbTo place or fit something into a particular space or position.

Slot in a sentence

• noun

  He pushed the coin into the slot on the parking meter.

• noun

  The dentist offered her an early morning appointment slot on friday.

• verb

  The manager will slot the extra meeting into tuesday afternoon.

• noun

  The letter would not fit through the narrow mail slot in the door.

• noun

  The new drama was given a prime time slot on saturday evenings.

• verb

  He tried to slot the battery into the back of the remote.

Where does slot come from?

Language of origin: French

Slot first appears in English around 1300 with the meaning of the hollow at the base of the throat, just above the breastbone, a sense borrowed from the Old French word esclot, whose own origin is uncertain. The more familiar modern meaning, a narrow opening into which something can be fitted, emerged in the 1520s and may draw on a separate Germanic source related to the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch slot, meaning a bolt or a lock. From a physical groove the word stretched naturally to mean a slit for posting coins, which is how the gambling machine came to be called a slot machine in the late nineteenth century. By the twentieth century slot had taken on the figurative sense of an assigned position in a sequence or schedule, as in a broadcasting or appointment slot. Because the word is short, phonetically regular, and spelled exactly as it sounds, it has remained one of the most straightforward words in English to write.

How the word is built

• slot (single root, no affixes)