How to say something makes something distinct

Question

For example suppose a feature in an object or a human that distinguishes the object from the rest, what are the constructions to say this sentence?

I wrote

We define an anchor as a textual element that marks the start or end of a data region, or as a distinctive feature within a region that distinguishes it from the rest of the page.

or

.... that makes it distinguishable from the rest.

or

... distinctive feature within a region that makes it distinctive.

Are there shorter ways to say that?

Answer 1

I would go with (close to your last option):

We define an anchor as a textual element that marks the start or end of a data region, or as a feature within a region that distinguishes it from the rest of the page.

You can leave out distinctive because it is redundant since you also use distinguish which has the same connotation.
I would not leave out page since it is not already defined in this passage.