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JamesTFHS

Scribe
Is it shapeshifter or shape shifter? I think it would be shapeshifter it seems to be what i am going for as it is for a made up species in my world that obviously shapeshifts.
 

Wanara009

Troubadour
Is it shapeshifter or shape shifter? I think it would be shapeshifter it seems to be what i am going for as it is for a made up species in my world that obviously shapeshifts.

You should've put this on "Writing Question" section...

Anyhow. I think the correct spelling is shapeshifter. The spell check in Microsoft Word don't recognize it, so I usually compensate by writing it as 'shape-shifter'.
 
I think the two-word version looks a little awkward. You want it to read like a single term, a unit of meaning; it's better with no space.

Also, the no-space, no-hyphen version is much more common than the others.
 

Weaver

Sage
I agree with Wordwalker (and not just because I always use the one-word spelling when I'm proofreading :) ). The hyphenated version could work, and for words that could be misread if the letters run togther, hyphenated is better. (I once saw a misplaced hyphen in a Charles Stross novel that had the MC talking about his "cow-orkers." Okay, probably misplaced.)

Generally, if the two parts of a compound word act together as a single entity, they look better written as a single entity. (Sorry, I don't have the jargon to explain better.) Thus (to take an example from the last thread I posted wildly on today), it's a full-length novel, not a full length novel. ("full-lenth" acting as a single adjective in this usage)
 

Weaver

Sage
By the way, the massive tome of a print dictionary (Webster's Universal Encyclopedic Dictionary, 2002 edition) that I keep next to my desk has it hyphenated: shape-shifter.
 
Why not make it easier on yourself and just call him a shifter?

Excellent point, but only for use part of the time; it comes across as a sort of nickname for the full term. (Unless it's a world that takes it for granted so much nobody bothers with the full one.)
 
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