[data models]
A map feature that bounds an area at a given scale, such as a country on a world map or a district on a city map.
[Esri software]
A digital map feature that represents a place or thing that has area at a given scale. A polygon feature may have one or more parts. For example, a building footprint is typically a polygon feature with one part. If the building has a detached unit, it might be represented as a multipart feature with discontinuous parts. If the detached unit is in an interior courtyard, the building might be represented as a multipart feature with nested parts. A multipart polygon feature is associated with a single record in an attribute table.