Other forms: inputs, inputting
Input is what is put into a system. Data input, an input signal, the input and the output.
In computing, input is what a program receives — from a keyboard, a file, a sensor — and output is what it produces. In economics, inputs are the labour and materials a process consumes. The word also means a contribution of ideas or effort: I would value your input on this, which is now very common in workplaces. Note the verb input, whose past tense is usually input rather than inputted, and input device.
1nouninputWhat is put into a system.
“The output is only as good as the input.”
2nouncontributionA contribution of ideas or effort.
“Her input changed the whole shape of the proposal.”
3verbenterTo enter data into a system.
“Somebody input the figures wrong on the first day.”
input is what goes in.
The word is in plus put, and it existed in Middle English before computing borrowed it. Its modern life is entirely technical, and the meeting-room sense of somebody's input is a metaphor from machinery.
Middle English
inputten
English, today
input
From Middle English inputten, equivalent to in + put.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA