Features are the distinguishing characteristics of a person, their personal characteristics that set them apart from others of their kind. (plural features) Examples of facial features are: long or straight hair, deep or narrow forehead, large eyes, a short nose, big ears, a thin chin, and full lips. The feature components of a human face: nose and ears and mouth and jaw. Often used technically to differentiate news from non-news, or just generally to differentiate personality from disposition.
The two most common use of “features” is to refer to physical characteristics. These can be in the form of physical attributes (e.g., long nose) or non-physical characteristics (e.g., large eyes). The distinction between physical and non-physical characteristics is usually made on the basis of how these characteristics manifest themselves in a person’s behavior (e.g., long nose does not mean that a person has a long nose but rather how that characteristic manifests in behavior). The second way that the two words are used is to refer to psychological characteristics, which are not actually physical.
Features can be described with one word or they can be described with several words. For instance, the word “tall” refers to height and “short” refers to stature (a person’s height as perceived by others). So then, to describe someone’s height you would say, “A person taller than average ( Tall x 100.”) This sort of comparison is a very useful sort of categorization, as it allows us to distinguish different sorts of personalities – and therefore, to classify people. However, while this example helps to explain features, it fails to account for the uniqueness of individual traits.
The word “special attraction” helps explain characteristics and it also helps explain why characteristics refer to a person’s characteristics. A special attraction is, in its most literal form, something that a person finds attractive and “loves.” It could be someone’s eyes or their hair, or their weight…in general, it is a feature that draws people to another person and that makes them want to spend time with that person. It could also be a sense of self-confidence or other intangible aspects of a person that lead people to want to be around this person.
“Special attraction” can be defined more precisely in terms of a quality or trait. If you say something is your special quality, you’re describing something that you possess in common with another person who also possesses that quality. This quality may be in the form of physical appearance, or it could be a certain language or cultural sensibility. In other words, a characteristic refers to something that is distinctive about you that you find attractive. Thus, if you want to say a certain characteristic refers to your hair, then the statement “My hair is my special characteristic” would be accurate.
Another way to look at it is this. A word feature could refer to a single physical trait or attribute (e.g., long or short, straight or curly, blue or brown, smart or dumb) and/or to a collection of traits or attributes (e.g., long or short, smart or not so smart, blue or brown, shy or talkative). If you’re defining a word feature as a single attribute, then you’re limiting it to one or two possible attributes. If you use the example above, your hair is your special characteristic; if you use the example above, your hair is your special characteristic plus your glasses. Obviously, the first sentence of the second paragraph is more correct: “My hair is my only distinctive feature.”