Word.ws English Dictionary

shapeshifter

UK/ˈʃeɪpʃɪftə//ˈʃeɪp.ʃɪf.tɚ/

shapeshifter noun: a person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will.

Noun

shapeshifter (plural shapeshifters)

  1. A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will.
    • The shapeshifter Lisa Bowalk, unable to shed the guise of a black panther, had gone onto the plain as a prisoner but was not now to be found among the dead above or the Captured down below.2000, Glen Cook, Water Sleeps
    • Like the teller of shapeshifter stories—who conjures a shifting world of perceptions and expectations for his or her audience that is strikingly similar to the worlds created by the shapeshifter for its victims—the cultural practice of imagination...is an inherently shifty enterprise....2003, Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities
  2. (figuratively) A person who is inconsistent and elusive.
    • She was an alcoholic, very chageable, very deceptive. A shapeshifter. You never knew where you stood with her, […]2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 268

Examples of shapeshifter in a sentence

  • There have also been verified reports of fire-starters and ice-makers and a shapeshifter so powerful she was able to frame another Smallville citizen for a bank robbery!2004, Devin Grayson, Smallville: City:
  • Granted, Grace is talking about actual transformation, but she's a shapeshifter.2015 January 30, Dan Shive, “Comic for Friday, Jan 30, 2015”, in El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP, archived from the original on 13 Aug 2022:
  • The shapeshifters sent many warriors to Sto-vo-kor.2023 October 26, Mike McMahan, “The Inner Fight” (16:32 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 9, spoken by Ma'ah...
  • And now, they have infiltrated our street.” “I have had horrible experiences with shapeshifters in the past.2024 November 11, Jake Bender & Zach Dunn, “Laszlo's Father” (1:34 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 6...

Synonyms of shapeshifter

Forms of shapeshifter

pluralshapeshifters
alternative formshape-shifter

Origin of shapeshifter

From shape + shifter.

Words formed from shapeshifter

Questions about shapeshifter

What does shapeshifter mean?
Shapeshifter means a person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will.
How do you use shapeshifter in a sentence?
There have also been verified reports of fire-starters and ice-makers and a shapeshifter so powerful she was able to frame another Smallville citizen for a bank robbery!
What part of speech is shapeshifter?
Shapeshifter is a noun.
How do you pronounce shapeshifter?
Shapeshifter is pronounced /ˈʃeɪpʃɪftə/ (UK).
What is the plural of shapeshifter?
The plural of shapeshifter is shapeshifters.

Words near shapeshifter in the dictionary

  1. shapes for
  2. shapes up
  3. shapes up or ships out
  4. shapeshift
  5. shapeshifted
  6. shapeshifter
  7. shapeshifters
  8. shapeshifting
  9. shapeshiftings
  10. shapeshifts
  11. shapest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shapeshifter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-shapeshifter.wav.

Cite this entry: “shapeshifter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shapeshifter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.