distinctive feature

noun

, Linguistics.

a feature of the sound system of a language that serves as the crucial distinguishing mark between two phonemes, as the distinctive feature of voicing, which distinguishes b from p in English, or nasality, which distinguishes m from b and p.
any of a set of phonetic properties, as coronal, nasal, or strident, serving as a basic unit of phonological analysis by which the sounds that are significant in a language can be characterized and distinguished from one another.
a component or phonetic feature characterizing a phoneme.

First recorded in 1925–30

Each is surrounded by a gelatinous capsule, which is its distinctive feature (Fig. 9).

Club life is, as might be supposed, a distinctive feature, and the Jockey Club (entrance 300) is a triumph of luxury.

The distinctive feature in securing permanency seems to have been the intent to secure it.

The abolition of existing property relations is not at all a distinctive feature of Communism.

Nothing was marked, the boots were odd ones and of a prehistoric age; there was no distinctive feature about any of the things.

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