# hot spot
## English
### Etymology

From hot +‎ spot.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈhɒtˌspɒt/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈhɑtˌspɑt/
* Audio (General American):(file)

### Noun

hot spot (plural hot spots)
* A location which has a higher temperature or amount of radiation than surrounding areas.
** 2003, Nancy Berkoff, Vegan Microwave Cookbook, page 13:[Y]our microwave may have an area in which more energy is concentrated. To test for a hot spot, place sliced white bread across the bottom of your microwave, so that the slices are touching, forming a solid layer.
** (firefighting, forestry) A part of a forest fire which is burning actively.
** (geology, planetology) The surface manifestation of a plume of molten material that rises from deep in a celestial body's mantle.
*** 2020 June 18, Matt Kaplan, “Yellowstone’s supervolcano is a hot spot, but it may be calming down”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 April 2021:While researchers can see the path that Yellowstone burned as the hot spot migrated from Oregon across Idaho and into Wyoming, discerning one eruption from another has been a chore as most volcanic deposits are scattered across vast landscapes in a chaotic jumble.
** (nuclear physics) An area of high radioactive contamination.
** (optics) Synonym of heiligenschein (“an optical phenomenon which creates a bright spot around the shadow of the viewer's head, when the surface on which the shadow falls has special optical characteristics”)
** An infected lesion in dogs or other furry mammals caused by excessive itching
* (figuratively) A place notable for a high level of activity or danger.
** 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Treasure Hunt—Flint’s Pointer”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part VI (Captain Silver), page 265:Great guns! messmates, but if Flint was living, this would be a hot spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what they are now.
** 2010, Thomas [Ellis] Joiner[, Jr.], “Suicidal Behavior”, in Myths about Suicide, Cambridge, Mass., London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 154:For instance, Toronto's Bloor Street Viaduct was, alas, a suicide hotspot – in fact, it was second only to the Golden Gate Bridge in terms of the number of bridge-related suicides.
** 2013 November 27, Emily Jane O’Dell, “Deep cover [print version: International Herald Tribune Magazine, 2013, page 47]”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 9 December 2013:I might never have learned my name or met my birth family if I hadn't ended up in the hospital in Rhode Island in 2007, after traveling to a trifecta of malaria hotspots: Mali, Egypt and Colombia.
** A dangerous place of violent political unrest.
    Synonyms: flash point, trouble spot
** A lively and entertaining place, such as a nightclub.
*** 1940 June 21, Charles W[illiam] Tobey, “Further Statement of Thad H. Brown, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C.”, in Nomination of Thad H. Brown: Hearings before the Committee on Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, Seventy-sixth Congress, Third Session on the Nomination of Thad H. Brown on Reappointment as Federal Communications Commissioner […], Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 81:It has been reported that an entertainment took place not long ago in a certain "hot spot" in New York City, and it has been charged that members of the Federal Communications Commission were present; that they got into a drunken brawl; and in the brawl some woman was hurt, her arm twisted.
** (computing)
*** A part of an application that consumes a significant amount of execution time.
*** (graphical user interface) A part of a control (“an interactive interface element”) that responds dynamically as a user moves a pointer over it (for example, a part of an image map that contains a hyperlink which can be clicked on with a cursor).
*** (Internet, networking) A location in which Wi-Fi Internet access is available.
    Antonym: notspot
** (ecology) Short for biodiversity hotspot (“a place with a significant level of biodiversity, particularly if the flora and fauna are threatened with loss of their habitat”).
** (genetics) The region of a gene in which there is a higher than normal rate of mutation.

#### Alternative forms

* hotspot

#### Derived terms

* biodiversity hotspot
* notspot

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “hot spot, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2020; “hot spot, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* hot spot (computer programming) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* hotspot (geology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* hotspot (Wi-Fi) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* screen hotspot on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* hotspot (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* hot pots, hotpots, pot shot, potshot