"shapeshifter" meaning in English

See shapeshifter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈʃeɪpʃɪftə/ [UK], /ˈʃeɪp.ʃɪf.tɚ/ [General-American] Forms: shapeshifters [plural]
Etymology: From shape + shifter. Etymology templates: {{com|en|shape|shifter}} shape + shifter Head templates: {{en-noun}} shapeshifter (plural shapeshifters)
  1. (fantasy, mythology, science fiction) A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will. Categories (topical): Fantasy, Mythology, Science fiction, Fictional abilities, Stock characters Translations (creature capable of changing its appearance): canviaformes [masculine] (Catalan), gedaanteverwisselaar [masculine] (Dutch), muodonmuuttaja (Finnish), métamorphe [feminine, masculine] (French), Gestaltwandler [masculine] (German), Gestaltwandlerin [feminine] (German), Formwandler [masculine] (German), Formwandlerin [feminine] (German), alakváltó (Hungarian), mutaforma [masculine] (Italian), trānsfigūrāns (Latin), trānsfōrmāns (Latin), mūtāns (Latin), hamløper [masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), hamløypar [masculine] (Norwegian Nynorsk), zmiennokształtny [masculine] (Polish), transmorfo [masculine] (Portuguese), о́боротень (óborotenʹ) [masculine] (Russian), cambiante [masculine] (Spanish), mgeuzi (note: noun 1/2) (Swahili), kibadilishaumbo (Swahili), hamnskiftare [common-gender] (Swedish), hamnlöpare [archaic, common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-shapeshifter-en-noun-OGdtMHGz Disambiguation of Fictional abilities: 98 2 Disambiguation of Stock characters: 96 4 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Shapeshifters Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 87 13 Disambiguation of Shapeshifters: 85 15 Topics: fantasy, human-sciences, literature, media, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, publishing, science-fiction, sciences Disambiguation of 'creature capable of changing its appearance': 94 6
  2. (figurative) A person who is inconsistent and elusive. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-shapeshifter-en-noun-X1N6NccA
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: shape-shifter

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for shapeshifter meaning in English (8.0kB)

{
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        "1": "en",
        "2": "shape",
        "3": "shifter"
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      "expansion": "shape + shifter",
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    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From shape + shifter.",
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    {
      "form": "shapeshifters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "shapeshifter (plural shapeshifters)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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          "_dis": "98 2",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000, Glen Cook, Water Sleeps",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities",
          "text": "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....",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Devin Grayson, Smallville: City",
          "text": "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!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 January 30, Dan Shive, “Comic for Friday, Jan 30, 2015”, in El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP, archived from the original on 2022-08-13",
          "text": "Granted, Grace is talking about actual transformation, but she's a shapeshifter. For her, growing a couple inches taller is like an alternative to wearing high heels.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will."
      ],
      "id": "en-shapeshifter-en-noun-OGdtMHGz",
      "links": [
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        [
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        [
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        [
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        [
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        [
          "at will",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(fantasy, mythology, science fiction) A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will."
      ],
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "canviaformes"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "gedaanteverwisselaar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "word": "muodonmuuttaja"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "métamorphe"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Formwandlerin"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "word": "alakváltó"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "mutaforma"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "word": "trānsfigūrāns"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "word": "trānsfōrmāns"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "word": "mūtāns"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "hamløper"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "nn",
          "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "hamløypar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "zmiennokształtny"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "transmorfo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "óborotenʹ",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "о́боротень"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "cambiante"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "sw",
          "lang": "Swahili",
          "note": "noun 1/2",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "word": "mgeuzi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "sw",
          "lang": "Swahili",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "word": "kibadilishaumbo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "hamnskiftare"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
          "tags": [
            "archaic",
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "hamnlöpare"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 268",
          "text": "She was an alcoholic, very chageable, very deceptive. A shapeshifter. You never knew where you stood with her, […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who is inconsistent and elusive."
      ],
      "id": "en-shapeshifter-en-noun-X1N6NccA",
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        [
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A person who is inconsistent and elusive."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃeɪpʃɪftə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃeɪp.ʃɪf.tɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "shape-shifter"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Shapeshifting"
  ],
  "word": "shapeshifter"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 3-syllable words",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "en:Fictional abilities",
    "en:Shapeshifters",
    "en:Stock characters"
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  ],
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      "form": "shapeshifters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
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      "expansion": "shapeshifter (plural shapeshifters)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Fantasy",
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        "en:Science fiction"
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        {
          "ref": "2000, Glen Cook, Water Sleeps",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities",
          "text": "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....",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Devin Grayson, Smallville: City",
          "text": "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!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 January 30, Dan Shive, “Comic for Friday, Jan 30, 2015”, in El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP, archived from the original on 2022-08-13",
          "text": "Granted, Grace is talking about actual transformation, but she's a shapeshifter. For her, growing a couple inches taller is like an alternative to wearing high heels.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will."
      ],
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          "fantasy"
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          "mythology",
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        [
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        [
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        [
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        [
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        ],
        [
          "form",
          "form"
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        [
          "at will",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(fantasy, mythology, science fiction) A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will."
      ],
      "topics": [
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        "literature",
        "media",
        "mysticism",
        "mythology",
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          "ref": "2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 268",
          "text": "She was an alcoholic, very chageable, very deceptive. A shapeshifter. You never knew where you stood with her, […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who is inconsistent and elusive."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "inconsistent",
          "inconsistent"
        ],
        [
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          "elusive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A person who is inconsistent and elusive."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃeɪpʃɪftə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃeɪp.ʃɪf.tɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "shape-shifter"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "canviaformes"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "gedaanteverwisselaar"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "word": "muodonmuuttaja"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "métamorphe"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Gestaltwandler"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Gestaltwandlerin"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Formwandler"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Formwandlerin"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "word": "alakváltó"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "mutaforma"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "word": "trānsfigūrāns"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "word": "trānsfōrmāns"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "word": "mūtāns"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "hamløper"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "hamløypar"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "zmiennokształtny"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "transmorfo"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "óborotenʹ",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "о́боротень"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "cambiante"
    },
    {
      "code": "sw",
      "lang": "Swahili",
      "note": "noun 1/2",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "word": "mgeuzi"
    },
    {
      "code": "sw",
      "lang": "Swahili",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "word": "kibadilishaumbo"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "hamnskiftare"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "creature capable of changing its appearance",
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "hamnlöpare"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Shapeshifting"
  ],
  "word": "shapeshifter"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.