hot spot

plural hot spots · alternative hotspot

1. A location which has a higher temperature or amount of radiation than surrounding areas.

   [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.

   2003, Nancy Berkoff, Vegan Microwave Cookbook, page 13

   1. businessA part of a forest fire which is burning actively.
   2. astronomyThe surface manifestation of a plume of molten material that rises from deep in a celestial body's mantle.

      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.

      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 Apr 2021

   3. nuclear physicsAn area of high radioactive contamination.
   4. engineeringSynonym 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”).

      Synonyms: heiligenschein

   5. An infected lesion in dogs or other furry mammals caused by excessive itching.
2. figurativelyA place notable for a high level of activity or danger.

   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.

   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

   2 more examples

   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.

   2010, Thomas [Ellis] Joiner[, Jr.], “Suicidal Behavior”, in Myths about Suicide, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 154

   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.

   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 09 Dec 2013

   1. figurativelyA dangerous place of violent political unrest.

      Synonyms: flash point, trouble spot

   2. figurativelyA lively and entertaining place, such as a nightclub.

      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.

      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

   3. figurativelycomputingA part of an application that consumes a significant amount of execution time.
   4. figurativelycomputingA 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).
   5. InternetfigurativelycomputingA location in which Wi-Fi Internet access is available.

      Antonyms: notspot

   6. abbreviationellipsisfigurativelybiologyEllipsis of biodiversity hotspot (“a place with a significant level of biodiversity, particularly if the flora and fauna are threatened with loss of their habitat”).
   7. figurativelybiologyThe region of a gene in which there is a higher than normal rate of mutation.