Feature Selection (FS) is considered a crucial procedure for eliminating unnecessary features from datasets. FS is considered a challenging problem that is difficult to solve efficiently due to its combinatorial nature. As the problem size increases, so does the computation time. Recently, researchers have been focusing on metaheuristic FS algorithms. Therefore, this paper introduces an adaptive chaotic dynamic gazelle optimization algorithm (ACD-GOA) with enhanced elite Strategy for FS problems. The ACD-GOA is a novel enhanced version of the recently published GOA, incorporating multiple improved strategies to enhance its search capabilities and convergence speed. The initialization phase and iteration initialization adopt the dynamic opposition learning strategy to avoid premature convergence. Additionally, several enhancement strategies are employed to improve the efficiency of the standard GOA. Adaptive inertia weight and sigmoid function are used to enhance search efficiency. Furthermore, enhanced elite and exchanging information strategies are implemented to maintain population diversity and avoid local solutions, respectively. Experimental evaluations are conducted using various functions, including the twelve CEC2022 standard functions and fourteen FS benchmark datasets. The performance of ACD-GOA is compared with several other metaheuristic algorithms. Statistical tests such as Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests are used to analyze the experimental data. The experimental results highlight the proposed algorithm’s exceptional capacity to overcome problems associated with local minima and expedite the convergence process. The suggested algorithm has been extensively compared to state-of-the-art algorithms, demonstrating significant breakthroughs. The reported accuracy of the proposed algorithm ranges from 0.78 to 1.00 with K-NN classifier.