feature

To ascribe the greatest importance to something within a certain context.

Noun

  1. One's structure or make-up: form, shape, bodily proportions.
    • all the powres of nature, / Which she by art could vse vnto her will, / And to her seruice bind each liuing creature; / Through secret vnderstanding of their feature. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The...
  2. An important or main item.
    • a water feature
    • Features of this model include a long battery life and a durable case.

    Synonyms: attraction

    1. A component that draws attention or interest.

    2. (by extension, computing) A beneficial capability of a piece of software.

      • The program contained an internal feature, which allowed a user to update display text after each command keystroke. - 2002, Sam Williams, Free as in Freedom:

    3. (media) A long, prominent article or item in the media, or the department that creates them; frequently used technically to distinguish content from news.

      • A feature interview with a noted personality or a discussion covering a specific issue is then presented. - 1984 April 7, Warren Blumenfeld, “Boston's Other Voice”, in Gay Community News, page 8:
      • He was included in a feature that was written by the EspnCricinfo department on the media.

    4. (film) Ellipsis of feature film.

  3. Any of the physical constituents of the face (eyes, nose, etc.).
  4. The cast or structure of anything, or of any part of a thing, as of a landscape, a picture, a treaty, or an essay; any marked peculiarity or characteristic.
    • one of the features of the landscape
    • The most prominent feature of the New England land system was the town grant, which in every case became the territorial basis of a group settlement. - 1911, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
    • Another recently discovered cave temple site, Shizikou in Linyou County, Shaanxi, preserves sculptures with thin legs, particularly bodhisattvas, that are much taller and more slender than the figures of this niche but...

    Synonyms: attribute characteristic designation distinction distinctiveness feature hallmark owndom parameter property propriety quality race trait touch whatness

  5. Something discerned from physical evidence that helps define, identify, characterize, and interpret an archeological site.
    • A feature of many Central Texas prehistoric archeological sites is a low spreading pile of stones called a rock midden. Other features at these sites may include small hearths.
  6. Characteristic forms or shapes of parts. For example, a hole, boss, slot, cut, chamfer, or fillet.
  7. An individual measurable property or characteristic of a phenomenon being observed; the input of a model.
    • MIT researchers are striving to improve the interpretability of features so decision makers will be more comfortable using the outputs of machine-learning models. Drawing on years of field work, they developed a...

    Coordinate Terms: parameter

  8. The act of being featured in a piece of music.
  9. The elements into which linguistic units can be broken down.

Origin

From Middle English feture, from Anglo-Norman feture, from Old French faiture, from Latin factūra, from Latin factus, from Latin faciō (“do, make”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do, put, place, set”). Doublet of facture.

Forms

features

Derived

albedo feature anti-feature biofeature cofeature creature feature defeature disfeature double feature eigenfeature facial feature featural feature article feature back feature control frame feature creep feature envy feature film featureful feature-length featureless featurely featurephone feature phone featuresome

Verb

  1. To ascribe the greatest importance to something within a certain context.
  2. To star, to contain.
    • Whitfield wanted to put together a new act to feature his abilities. - 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 275:
    • England are up and running. Again. It has been a happy feature of the Gareth Southgate years that his team always win their opening tie at tournaments. It never used to be the case with England but to the list that...
  3. To appear, to make an appearance.
    • Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love, Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water and Layla by Derek and the Dominos also featured in the top five. - 2009 November 27, “Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has 'best guitar riff'”, in BBC:
  4. To have features resembling.
    • More than his talents, Roger grudged him his looks, the brown eyes, golden hair, and oval face, which made people say how Johnny Weir featured his mother. - Sunday. Reading for the Young (page 219)
  5. To think about, understand, or imagine.
    • She could feature Charles doing it, but Jerome was the perfect model of an altar boy, who made you wonder after all if there was such a bugaboo as original sin. - 1975, Larry Woiwode, Beyond the Bedroom Wall, Farrar,...

Forms

features featuring featured