a narrow notch, groove, or opening, as in a keyway in a machine, a slit for coins in a vending machine, etc.

Verb To fit or slit into: He slotted the piece of wood into the groove.

To operate a slot machine

In the old days, mechanical slots were simple enough that a quick glance at a machine was all you needed to know whether you had won or lost. Now, however, electronic systems in a slot machine do much of the heavy lifting. Once a machine has received a signal — anything from a button being pressed to the handle being pulled — it starts running a random-number generator that sets a series of numbers that correspond to the stops on each reel.

After that, each spin of the reels brings a different combination of symbols to those in the previous spin. Depending on how many paylines you bet on, your winnings could vary widely. For generations, gamblers were told that maximum bets brought the best odds of hitting the jackpot. That is still true on older machines, but it’s not necessarily the case with video and online slots.

You can add synonyms to a slot type to help Dialog Engine understand multiple variations of the same word or phrase. For example, you can map the slot type value New York to the synonyms Big Apple or NYC. To do so, select the allow synonyms checkbox next to the slot type, then type the alternate name in the field that appears.