Etymology 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.
Obsolete 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 Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
› An important or main item.
2
A component that draws attention or interest.
a water feature
Features of this model include a long battery life and a durable case.
3
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, SciencesBroadly 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:
Whoop Life has a feature called Blood Pressure Insights that uses various bits of data—including heart rate, HRV, and blood flow patterns—to estimate your blood pressure.2026, Ginny Graves, “The Most Important Health Metric You're Not Tracking”, in Men's Health, volume 41, number 2, page 18:
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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.
Any of the physical constituents of the face (eyes, nose, etc.).
7
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:
2 more examples
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 share a number of stylistic features, including a diagonal chest shawl and a dhoti with an overlapping apron of cloth that falls from the waist in the same two-part pattern of scalloped folds and a waist tie hanging down the middle; they have long tubular arms as well.2007, Annette L. Juliano, “Niche with Amitabha Buddha and two Guanyin (Skt. Avalokiteshvara) Bodhisattvas [龛式阿弥陀佛和二观音菩萨造像]”, in Buddhist Sculpture from China: Selections from the Xi’an Beilin Museum: Fifth through Ninth Centuries, New York: China Institute, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 100, column 1:
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 features Tunisia, Croatia and Iran can be added the name of Serbia.2024 June 16, David Hytner, “Jude Bellingham gives England winning start but Serbia make Southgate sweat”, in Guardian:
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Archaeology, History, Human sciences, Sciences 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.
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Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Characteristic forms or shapes of parts. For example, a hole, boss, slot, cut, chamfer, or fillet.
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Mathematics, Sciences, Statistics An individual measurable property or characteristic of a phenomenon being observed; the input of a model.
Machine learning
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 taxonomy to help developers craft features that will be easier for their target audience to understand.2022 June 30, Adam Zewe, “Building explainability into the components of machine-learning models”, in MIT News:
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Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music The act of being featured in a piece of music.
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences The elements into which linguistic units can be broken down.
Etymology 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.
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 features Tunisia, Croatia and Iran can be added the name of Serbia.2024 June 16, David Hytner, “Jude Bellingham gives England winning start but Serbia make Southgate sweat”, in Guardian:
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:
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
US, Regional 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, Straus & Giroux, page 190: