Meanings
- not comparableOf or pertaining to features.
As Xu and Carey have shown, while children may be aware of property or featural distinctions between objects, they do not use them to distinguish unique individuals (Xu and Carey 1996).
2008 January 8, John E. Sarnecki, “Sortals for Dummies”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 2, →DOI - not comparablehuman sciencesBeing or relating to a writing system whose symbols encode phonological features of the sounds that they correspond to.
The same author also cites Pitman's shorthand as an example of a ‘featural’ writing system .
1995, Roy Harris, Signs of Writing, Psychology Press, page 582 more examples
As a featural alphabet, Hangeul bears some similarities with scientifically created writing systems invented centuries later, such as the Visible Speech system invented by Alexander Melville Bell.
2015, Robert Koehler et al., Hangeul: Korea's Unique Alphabet, Seoul SelectionBecause of its systematic categorization of sounds, with corresponding graphic interpretation, some linguists have come to consider han'gŭl a "featural" system.
1997, Young-Key Kim-Renaud, The Korean Alphabet: Its History and Structure, University of Hawai'i Press, page 184
Origin
Cite this entry
featural. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/featural
“featural.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/featural. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “featural,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/featural.
Source: featural on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.