Throughout the history, the folklore of different cultures gave rise to images of not only monsters and various hybrids, but also creatures who possess the ability of shapeshifting. Some of the most recognizable of these are the european werewolves and the japanese foxes known as "kitsune". European werewolves are traditionally described as humans capable of shapeshifting into a wolf-like creature, either at will or due to a curse. At the same time, in japanese folklore, foxes were ascribed with a number of mystical abilities, and one of these abilities was shapeshifting into an attractive human girl. Nowadays, the image of shapeshifters is used in such areas of popular culture as literature, visual arts, animation films and video games. But due to the lack of universal and accurate definitions, modern authors may have problems with the denotation of complex and unique types of shapeshifters, the image of which differs from folklore.

In order to solve this problem, it's worth introducing such definitions as "Beast-shifting human" and "Anthropo-shifting animal". In each of these definitions, the adjectives "beast-shifting" and "anthropo-shifting" are used to denote the target form of the shapeshifter, while the nouns "human" and "animal" are used to denote the base, original form of the shapeshifter.

In addition to this, adjectives and nouns can be adapted in order to clarify the base form, target form, gender and age of the shapeshifter. The following examples describe completely different types of shapeshifters.
Wolf-shifting man - a human man capable of shapeshifting into a typical wolf.
Anthropo-shifting wolfess - a typical wolfess capable of shapeshifting into a human woman.
Wolfhuman-shifting man - a human man capable of shapeshifting into a wolfmorphic human. This target creature is bipedal, has human intelligence and behavior, hands and torso structurally identical to ones of a human, but has head, hind limbs, tail and fur covering almost identical to ones of a typical wolf.
Anthropowolf-shifting woman - a human woman capable of shapeshifting into an anthropomorphic wolfess. This target species has similar behavior and slightly more developed intelligence that ones of a typical wolfess, forelimbs developed enough to grasp objects, torso and hind limbs structurally similar to ones of a typical wolfess.
Anthropowolf-shifting wolfman - a wolfman capable of shapeshifting into an anthropowolf.
Wolfhuman-shifting anthropowolfess - an anthropowolfess capable of shapeshifting into a wolfwoman.
Anthropowolf-shifting wolf - a typical wolf capable of shapeshifting into an anthropowolf.
Wolfhuman-shifting wolfess - a typical wolfess capable of shapeshifting into a wolfwoman.

It's important to note that the base form by default defines all the unmentioned features of the target form, therefore, if the gender and age of both forms are the same, then they should be denoted just once and only in the base form. Based on this, phrases such as "Wolfman-shifting man", "Wolfman-shifting human" and "Anthropowolfess-shifting human" are not correct.