feedback

See also: Feedback, feed-back, and feed back

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English feed

English back

English feedback

From feed + back.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiːdˌbæk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

feedback (usually uncountable, plural feedbacks)

1. Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.

   Synonyms: estimation, assessment, critique, evaluation

   After you hand in your essays, I will give both grades and feedback.

   • 2014 October 9, Marina Carver, “Study finds Boston police target African-Americans disproportionately”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     “Over the past month, the Department has held three separate meetings with the ACLU to receive feedback and engage the organization in the solutions,” the department said in a statement. “As a result of the meetings, the Department agrees that publishing FIO statistics going forward is necessary, and the Department is working toward personalizing interactions between officers and citizens.”

2. (electronics, cybernetics, control theory) The part of an output signal that is looped back into the input to control or modify a system.
   • 2007, Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain:

     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 started, grow relentlessly worse.

3. (amplification) The high-pitched howling noise heard when there is a loop between a microphone and a speaker.

   Synonyms: audio feedback, Larsen effect, howlback, howlround

   • 2002, John Griesemer, No One Thinks of Greenland, Picador, →ISBN:

     A loud feedback screech blasted from a speaker on the wall. It was a hailing signal of some kind.

Hyponyms

• negative feedback
• positive feedback

Coordinate terms

• buffering
• feedforward

Derived terms

• 360 degree feedback
• antifeedback
• autofeedback
• biofeedback
• degenerative feedback
• enterprise feedback management
• feedback control
• feedbacker
• feedback loop
• feedback transfer function
• feedbacky
• ice-albedo feedback
• neurofeedback
• postfeedback
• regenerative feedback
• video feedback

Descendants

• → German: Feedback
• → Japanese: フィードバック (fīdobakku)
• → Korean: 피드백 (pideubaek)
• → Polish: feedback
• → Portuguese: feedback
• → Russian: фидбэ́к (fidbɛ́k)
• → Spanish: feedback, → retroalimentación (calque)

Translations

critical assessment of process or activity

• Afrikaans: terugvoer
• Arabic: تَلْقِيم اِسْتِرْجَاعِيّ m (talqīm istirjāʕiyy), تَقْيِيم m (taqyīm), إِرْتِجَاع m (ʔirtijāʕ)
• Armenian: գնահատական (hy) (gnahatakan)
• Azerbaijani: əks-əlaqə
• Belarusian: во́дзыў m (vódzyw), адкліка́нне n (adklikánnje), во́дгук (be) m (vódhuk)
• Bulgarian: обра́тна връ́зка f (obrátna vrǎ́zka)
• Catalan: resposta (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反饋 / 反馈 (zh) (fǎnkuì), 反應 / 反应 (zh) (fǎnyìng)

• Czech: zpětná vazba f, zpětný názor m
• Dutch: terugkoppeling (nl)
• Esperanto: retrokuplo
• Finnish: palaute (fi)
• French: évaluation (fr) f, réaction (fr) f
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: weromkeppeling

• Galician: valoración (gl) m, avaliación (gl) m, comentario (gl) m, impresión m
• Georgian: უკუკავშირი (uḳuḳavširi), ფიდბექი (pidbeki), გამოხმაურება (gamoxmaureba)
• German: Feedback (de) n, Rückmeldung (de) f
• Greek: ανάδραση (el) f (anádrasi)
• Hebrew: פִידְבֶּק (he) m (fídbek)
• Hindi: प्रतिपुष्टि f (pratipuṣṭi), प्रतिक्रिया (hi) f (pratikriyā), प्रतिसाद m (pratisād)
• Hungarian: visszajelzés (hu)
• Icelandic: endurgjöf f
• Indonesian: umpan balik (id), balikan (id), masukan (id), masukan balik
• Irish: aiseolas m
• Italian: valutazione (it) f, riscontro (it) m, risposta (it) f
• Japanese: フィードバック (ja) (fīdobakku), 反応 (ja) (はんのう, hannō), 批評 (ja) (ひひょう, hihyō), 反応 (ja) (はんのう, hannō)
• Kazakh: фидбэк (fidbék)
• Korean: 피드백 (pideubaek), 비평(批評) (ko) (bipyeong), 반응(反應) (ko) (baneung)
• Macedonian: повратна информација f (povratna informacija)
• Malay: maklum balas
• Māori: kōrero whakahoki
• Persian: بازخورد (fa) (bâzxord)
• Polish: feedback (pl) m, informacja zwrotna f, uwaga (pl) f, opinia zwrotna f
• Portuguese: comentário (pt) m, avaliação (pt) f, feedback (pt) m
• Romanian: reacție (ro) f
• Russian: о́тзыв (ru) m (ótzyv), о́тклик (ru) m (ótklik), обра́тная связь (ru) f (obrátnaja svjazʹ), оце́нка (ru) f (océnka), фидбэ́к (ru) m (fidbɛ́k)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Latin: povratna informacija f, povratne informacije f pl, povratno mišljenje n

• Slovak: spätná väzba f
• Slovene: povratne informacije f pl, povratno mnenje n, povratna zanka f
• Spanish: valoración (es) f, comentario (es) m, reacción (es) f, impresión (es) f, feedback m, corrección (es) f
• Swedish: feedback (sv) c
• Turkish: geri bildirim (tr)
• Ukrainian: зворо́тний зв'я́зок m (zvorótnyj zvʺjázok), відкли́кання n (vidklýkannja), відклика́ння n (vidklykánnja), ві́дгук m (vídhuk)
• Urdu: باز رسی (bāz-rasī)
• Vietnamese: sự phản hồi (vi)
• Walloon: ritripaedje (wa) m, rispitaedje (wa) m
• Welsh: adborth m, atborth m

signal that is looped back to control a system within itself

• Armenian: հետադարձ կապ (hy) (hetadarj kap)
• Bulgarian: обра́тна връ́зка f (obrátna vrǎ́zka)
• Catalan: retroacció (ca) f, realimentació f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反饋 / 反馈 (zh) (fǎnkuì), 反饋信號 / 反馈信号 (fǎnkuì xìnhào)

• Czech: zpětná vazba f
• Dutch: terugkoppeling (nl) f
• Esperanto: retroefiko, retroago
• Finnish: takaisinkytkentä, takaisinsyöttö (fi), palaute (fi)
• French: rétroaction (fr) f
• Georgian: უკუკავშირი (uḳuḳavširi), უკურეაქცია (uḳureakcia)
• German: Rückkopplung (de) f, Feedback (de) n
• Greek: ανάδραση (el) f (anádrasi), ανατροφοδότηση (el) f (anatrofodótisi)
• Hebrew: פִידְבֶּק (he) m (fídbek)
• Hungarian: visszacsatolás (hu)
• Indonesian: umpan balik (id)
• Italian: retroazione (it) f
• Japanese: フィードバック (ja) (fīdobakku)
• Korean: 피드백 (pideubaek)
• Malay: suap balik
• Māori: maiorooro
• Polish: sprzężenie zwrotne (pl) n
• Portuguese: retroalimentação (pt) f, realimentação f, feedback (pt) m
• Romanian: reacție (ro) f, efect retroactiv n, conexiune inversă (ro) f
• Russian: обра́тная связь (ru) f (obrátnaja svjazʹ), фидбэ́к (ru) m (fidbɛ́k)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Latin: povratna sprega f

• Slovak: spätná väzba f
• Spanish: retroacción f, realimentación (es) f, retroalimentación (es) f, feedback m
• Swedish: återkoppling (sv) f
• Turkish: geri besleme (tr)
• Ukrainian: зворо́тний зв'я́зок m (zvorótnyj zvʺjázok)
• Vietnamese: sự hoàn ngược, sự phản hồi (vi)
• Welsh: atborth m

howling noise

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: rondzingen (nl)
• Finnish: kierto (fi)
• French: effet Larsen m
• German: (akustische) Rückkopplung (de) f, Feedback (de) n
• Hebrew: פִידְבֶּק (he) m (fídbek)
• Hungarian: gerjedés
• Italian: ritorno (it) m
• Japanese: ハウリング (hauringu), フィードバック (ja) (fīdobakku), 鳴音 (めいおん, meion)
• Māori: maiorooro
• Portuguese: microfonia (pt) f, feedback (pt) m
• Slovak: spätná väzba
• Spanish: acople (es) m, retroalimentación (es) f, retroalimentación acústica f
• Swedish: rundgång (sv)
• Vietnamese: sự nối tiếp (vi)

Verb

feedback (third-person singular simple present feedbacks, present participle feedbacking, simple past and past participle feedbacked)

1. (music) To generate the high-frequency sound by allowing a speaker to cause vibration of the sound generator of a musical instrument connected by an amplifier to the speaker.

   The show ended with a riot of feedbacking guitars.

2. (transitive) To provide informational feedback to.

   His employees feedbacked him a lot more than he wanted.

3. (transitive) To convey by means of specialized communications channel.

   Customers feedbacked their complaints and some praise.

Usage notes

• Some are likely to prefer feed back and its inflected forms feeds back, feeding back, or fed back.

Further reading

• feedback on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• audio feedback on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Danish

Etymology

From English feedback.

Noun

feedback c (singular definite feedbacken, not used in plural form)

1. feedback (critical evaluation)

Synonyms

• respons
• tilbagemelding
• tilbagekobling

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English feedback.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfid.bɛk/, /fitˈbɛk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: feed‧back

Noun

feedback m (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. feedback

Finnish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English feedback.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiːdbæk/, [ˈfiːdbæk]
• Rhymes: -iːdbæk

Noun

feedback

1. (jargon) feedback

Declension

Inflection of feedback (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative		feedback	feedbackit
genitive		feedbackin	feedbackien
partitive		feedbackiä	feedbackejä
illative		feedbackiin	feedbackeihin
		singular	plural
nominative		feedback	feedbackit
accusative	nom.	feedback	feedbackit
	gen.	feedbackin
genitive		feedbackin	feedbackien
partitive		feedbackiä	feedbackejä
inessive		feedbackissä	feedbackeissä
elative		feedbackistä	feedbackeistä
illative		feedbackiin	feedbackeihin
adessive		feedbackillä	feedbackeillä
ablative		feedbackiltä	feedbackeiltä
allative		feedbackille	feedbackeille
essive		feedbackinä	feedbackeinä
translative		feedbackiksi	feedbackeiksi
abessive		feedbackittä	feedbackeittä
instructive		—	feedbackein
comitative		See the possessive forms below.

Possessive forms of feedback (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)

first-person singular possessor singular plural nominative feedbackini feedbackini accusative nom. feedbackini feedbackini gen. feedbackini genitive feedbackini feedbackieni partitive feedbackiäni feedbackejäni inessive feedbackissäni feedbackeissäni elative feedbackistäni feedbackeistäni illative feedbackiini feedbackeihini adessive feedbackilläni feedbackeilläni ablative feedbackiltäni feedbackeiltäni allative feedbackilleni feedbackeilleni essive feedbackinäni feedbackeinäni translative feedbackikseni feedbackeikseni abessive feedbackittäni feedbackeittäni instructive — — comitative — feedbackeineni second-person singular possessor singular plural nominative feedbackisi feedbackisi accusative nom. feedbackisi feedbackisi gen. feedbackisi genitive feedbackisi feedbackiesi partitive feedbackiäsi feedbackejäsi inessive feedbackissäsi feedbackeissäsi elative feedbackistäsi feedbackeistäsi illative feedbackiisi feedbackeihisi adessive feedbackilläsi feedbackeilläsi ablative feedbackiltäsi feedbackeiltäsi allative feedbackillesi feedbackeillesi essive feedbackinäsi feedbackeinäsi translative feedbackiksesi feedbackeiksesi abessive feedbackittäsi feedbackeittäsi instructive — — comitative — feedbackeinesi first-person plural possessor singular plural nominative feedbackimme feedbackimme accusative nom. feedbackimme feedbackimme gen. feedbackimme genitive feedbackimme feedbackiemme partitive feedbackiämme feedbackejämme inessive feedbackissämme feedbackeissämme elative feedbackistämme feedbackeistämme illative feedbackiimme feedbackeihimme adessive feedbackillämme feedbackeillämme ablative feedbackiltämme feedbackeiltämme allative feedbackillemme feedbackeillemme essive feedbackinämme feedbackeinämme translative feedbackiksemme feedbackeiksemme abessive feedbackittämme feedbackeittämme instructive — — comitative — feedbackeinemme second-person plural possessor singular plural nominative feedbackinne feedbackinne accusative nom. feedbackinne feedbackinne gen. feedbackinne genitive feedbackinne feedbackienne partitive feedbackiänne feedbackejänne inessive feedbackissänne feedbackeissänne elative feedbackistänne feedbackeistänne illative feedbackiinne feedbackeihinne adessive feedbackillänne feedbackeillänne ablative feedbackiltänne feedbackeiltänne allative feedbackillenne feedbackeillenne essive feedbackinänne feedbackeinänne translative feedbackiksenne feedbackeiksenne abessive feedbackittänne feedbackeittänne instructive — — comitative — feedbackeinenne third-person possessor singular plural nominative feedbackinsä feedbackinsä accusative nom. feedbackinsä feedbackinsä gen. feedbackinsä genitive feedbackinsä feedbackiensä partitive feedbackiään feedbackiänsä feedbackejään feedbackejänsä inessive feedbackissään feedbackissänsä feedbackeissään feedbackeissänsä elative feedbackistään feedbackistänsä feedbackeistään feedbackeistänsä illative feedbackiinsä feedbackeihinsä adessive feedbackillään feedbackillänsä feedbackeillään feedbackeillänsä ablative feedbackiltään feedbackiltänsä feedbackeiltään feedbackeiltänsä allative feedbackilleen feedbackillensä feedbackeilleen feedbackeillensä essive feedbackinään feedbackinänsä feedbackeinään feedbackeinänsä translative feedbackikseen feedbackiksensä feedbackeikseen feedbackeiksensä abessive feedbackittään feedbackittänsä feedbackeittään feedbackeittänsä instructive — — comitative — feedbackeineen feedbackeinensä

Further reading

• “feedback”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English feedback.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fid.bak/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

Noun

feedback m (plural feedbacks)

1. feedback (generic)

Further reading

• “feedback”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Polish

Etymology

Etymology tree

English feed

English back

English feedbackubor.

Polish feedback

Unadapted borrowing from English feedback. First attested in 1976.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfid.bɛk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -idbɛk
• Syllabification: feed‧back

Noun

feedback m inan

1. feedback (critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results)

   Synonyms: informacja zwrotna, uwaga, opinia zwrotna

Declension

Declension of feedback

	singular	plural
nominative	feedback	feedbacki
genitive	feedbacku	feedbacków
dative	feedbackowi	feedbackom
accusative	feedback	feedbacki
instrumental	feedbackiem	feedbackami
locative	feedbacku	feedbackach
vocative	feedbacku	feedbacki

Related terms

noun

• biofeedback

Further reading

• “feedback”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• feed-back
• fio de beque (humorous)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English feedback.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌfid͡ʒˈbɛ.ki/, /ˌfid͡ʒˈbɛk/, /ˌfi.d͡ʒiˈbɛ.ki/, /ˌfi.d͡ʒiˈbɛk/, /ˌfidˈbɛk/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌfid͡ʒˈbɛ.ki/, /ˌfid͡ʒˈbɛk/, /ˌfi.d͡ʒiˈbɛ.ki/, /ˌfi.d͡ʒiˈbɛk/, /ˌfidˈbɛk/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌfid͡ʒˈbɛk/, /ˌfid͡ʒˈbɛ.ki/, /ˌfidˈbɛk/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌfi.dɨˈbɛ.kɨ/ [ˌfi.ðɨˈβɛ.kɨ]

Noun

feedback m (plural feedbacks)

1. feedback (assessment on information produced)

   Synonyms: comentário, avaliação, retorno

2. (electronics) feedback (signal that is looped back to control a system within itself)

   Synonyms: retroalimentação, realimentação

3. feedback (howling sound)

   Synonyms: retorno, microfonia

Further reading

• “feedback”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “feedback”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English feedback.

Noun

feedback n (plural feedbackuri)

1. feedback

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	feedback	feedbackul	feedbackuri	feedbackurile
genitive-dative	feedback	feedbackului	feedbackuri	feedbackurilor
vocative	feedbackule		feedbackurilor

Spanish

Alternative forms

• feed-back

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English feedback.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfidbak/ [ˈfið̞.β̞ak]
  • Rhymes: -idbak
• IPA^(key): /fidˈbak/ [fið̞ˈβ̞ak]
  • Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: feed‧back

Noun

feedback m (plural feedbacks)

1. feedback

   Synonym: retroalimentación

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “feedback”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “feedback”, in Diccionario del español actual (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA