feature

noun

1. (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.”

2. An important or main item.
3. 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.”

   “He was included in a feature that was written by the EspnCricinfo department on the media.”

4. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)A long, prominent article or item in the media, or the department that creates them; frequently used technically to distinguish content from news.
5. Any of the physical constituents of the face (eyes, nose, etc.).
6. 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.”

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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

8. 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.”

9. Characteristic forms or shapes of parts. For example, a hole, boss, slot, cut, chamfer, or fillet.
10. 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 taxonomy to help developers craft features that will be easier for their target audience to understand.”

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

verb

1. (transitive)To ascribe the greatest importance to something within a certain context.
2. (transitive)To star, to contain.

   “Whitfield wanted to put together a new act to feature his abilities.”

   “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.”

3. (intransitive)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.”

4. (dated, transitive)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.”

5. (Pennsylvania, Western)To think about, understand, or imagine.