Spot Metering
A metering pattern that reads only a small circle, usually one to three per cent of the frame, ignoring everything around it.
In depth
Spot metering hands the exposure decision entirely to the photographer: you choose what should be middle grey, and the camera obliges. That makes it powerful for extreme contrast and dangerous for casual use, since aiming at the wrong tone will be a stop or more out. Most cameras spot-meter at the centre, though some link the spot to the active focus point.
Examples in practice
Metering a spotlit singer's cheek and dialling +1 EV renders the skin correctly while the black stage falls where it belongs.