Meaning & use

shifter

noun·Everyday

A person or device that moves, changes, or exchanges something, such as a gear-changing lever in a vehicle.

See it in a sentence

He grabbed the gear shifter and dropped the car into a lower gear before the hill.

In folklore, a shifter is a creature able to change its physical form at will.

A note on using this word

Shifter most commonly refers to the gear-changing lever in a manual vehicle; in fantasy fiction, it also refers to a shape-changing being.

Words with a similar meaning

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