An Accessory shoe can be referred to as ‘hot’, whereby it communicates electronically with the attached accessory, or ‘cold’ where it doesn’t.
For example, all Accessory Shoes on
Canon EOS cameras are Hot Shoes, which enable the triggering of a Speedlite Flash. An example of a Cold Shoe is where you can mount a Speedlite off-camera using a special bracket, with the electrical communication taken care of with an off camera cable.