1. [n]  response to an inquiry or experiment
2. [n]  the process in which part of the output of a system is returned to its input in order to regulate its further output

Part of a system output presented at its input. Feedback may be unintended. When used as a design feature, the output is usually transformed by passive components which attenuate it in some manner; the result is then presented at the system input.

Feedback is positive or negative, depending on the sign with which a positive change in the original input reappears after transformation. Negative feedback was invented by Black to stabilise vacuum tube amplifiers. The behaviour becomes largely a function of the feedback transformation and only minimally a function of factors such as transistor gain which are imperfectly known.

Positive feedback can lead to instability; it finds wide application in the construction of oscillators.

Feedback can be used to control a system, as in feedback control.