feed-back

Noun

feedback (usually uncountable, plural feedbacks)

1. (usually) Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
   • After you hand in your essays, I will give both grades and feedback.

   Synonyms:

   estimation, assessment, critique, evaluation

2. (usually, cybernetics, control theory) The part of an output signal that is looped back into the input to control or modify a system.
   • The fact that similar cortical abnormalities can be experimentally induced in monkeys has allowed Michael Merzenich and his colleagues in San Francisco to explore an animal model of focal dystonia, and to demonstrate the abnormal feedback in the sensory loop and the motor misfirings that, once...2007, Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
3. (usually, amplification) The high-pitched howling noise heard when there is a loop between a microphone and a speaker.
   • A loud feedback screech blasted from a speaker on the wall. It was a hailing signal of some kind.2002, John Griesemer, No One Thinks of Greenland, Picador, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   audio feedback, Larsen effect, howlback, howlround

See all 6 meanings of feedback