‘反馈’ (fǎn kuì) literally means ‘to return’ (反) and ‘to give, to offer’ (馈), together forming the idea of information or a response that is sent back to the original source. It refers to reactions, responses, or data provided after an action, process, or event — especially in contexts like communication, technology, education, healthcare, or management. Unlike casual comments, 反馈 often implies a structured, purposeful reply used for evaluation or improvement.

The term is widely used in both formal and informal modern Chinese, especially in professional, technical, and digital environments (e.g., app ratings, medical follow-ups, classroom assessments). While it originated as a technical term borrowed from cybernetics, it’s now fully integrated into everyday language. It functions grammatically as a noun and is rarely used as a verb without additional particles (e.g., 反馈信息 or 给出反馈).