Feature

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For featured articles in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Featured articles and featured article candidates For feature requests relating to the MediaWiki software which powers Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Bug reports and feature requests For featured topics in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Featured topics Look up feature in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. A feature is a distinct property or piece, which may refer to:

Contents

• 1 Science and technology
• 2 Media
• 3 Linguistics
• 4 Other uses

Science and technology

• Feature (software design) is distinguishing characteristic of a software item (e.g., performance, portability, or functionality).
• Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob
• Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch
• Features (pattern recognition), in statistics, individual measurable properties of the phenomena being observed
• Feature data, in geographic information systems, comprises information about an entity with a geographic location

Media

• Feature film, a film intended for initial distribution in theaters
• A feature story is a piece of journalistic writing that covers a selected issue in-depth
• Radio documentary (feature), a radio programme devoted to covering a particular topic in some depth, usually with a mixture of commentary and sound pictures

Linguistics

• Feature (linguistics), a property of a class of linguistic items which describes individual members of that class
• Distinctive feature, the most basic unit of structure that can be analyzed by phonetics and phonology

Other uses

• Feature (archaeology), any dug, built, or dumped evidence of human activity
• The Features, an American rock band

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Noun

feature (plural features)

1. (obsolete) One's structure or make-up; form, shape, bodily proportions.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:

     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. (media) A long, prominent, article or item in the media, or the department that creates them; frequently used technically to distinguish content from news.
4. Any of the physical constituents of the face (eyes, nose, etc.).
5. (computing) A beneficial capability of a piece of software.
   • 2002, Sam Williams, Free as in Freedom:

     The program contained an internal feature, which allowed a user to update display text after each command keystroke.

6. 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; as, one of the features of the landscape.
   • 1911, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:

     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.

7. (archaeology) 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.
8. (engineering) Characteristic forms or shapes of a part. For example, a hole, boss, slot, cut, chamfer, or fillet.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:characteristic