different between shapeshifter vs skinwalker

English

Alternative forms

• shape-shifter

Etymology

shape +? shifter

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??e?p??ft?/

Noun

shapeshifter (plural shapeshifters)

1. (fantasy, mythology) A creature capable of changing its appearance or form at will.
   • 2000: Glen Cook, Water Sleeps

     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.

   • 2003: Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities

     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....

   • 2004: Devin Grayson, Smallville: City

     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!

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:shape-shifter.

Translations

Anagrams

• phase shifter

English

Alternative forms

• skin-walker

Etymology

skin +? walker

Noun

skinwalker (plural skinwalkers)

1. A person, in certain Native American mythologies, who can transform into any animal when wearing its pelt.

Related terms

• skinwalking

Translations

See also

• nahual
• narnauk