Feature selection (FS) is applied to reduce data dimensions while retaining much information. Many optimization methods have been applied to enhance the efficiency of FS algorithms. These approaches reduce the processing time and improve the accuracy of the learning models. In this paper, a developed method called MPAO based on the marine predators algorithm (MPA) and the “narrowed exploration” strategy of the Aquila optimizer (AO) is proposed to handle FS, global optimization, and engineering problems. This modification enhances the exploration behavior of the MPA to update and explore the search space. Therefore, the narrowed exploration of the AO increases the searchability of the MPA, thereby improving its ability to obtain optimal or near-optimal results, which effectively helps the original MPA overcome the local optima issues in the problem domain. The performance of the proposed MPAO method is evaluated on solving FS and global optimization problems using some evaluation criteria, including the maximum value (Max), minimum value (Min), and standard deviation (Std) of the fitness function. Furthermore,the results are compared to some meta-heuristic methods over four engineering problems. Experimental results confirm the efficiency of the proposed MPAO method in solving FS, global optimization, and engineering problems.