Meanings
- artsA legendary Japanese animal with the ability to shapeshift into human form.
1985, David Cook, Oriental Adventures, TSR Inc., →ISBN Hengeyokai are intelligent, shape-changing animals. Several subraces exist, each a different type of animal. They are found throughout the Oriental world, usually on the fringes of human-settled lands.
3 more examples
1998-01-28, Lee Gold, Re: B5 Filk: You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Us Sinclair, rec.music.filk If a hengeyokai fails to concentrate (or perhaps gets distracted -- due to being beaten, seeing a mouse, fatigue), the human form's ears may get pointed or a tail may appear.
Hengeyokai transfer between forms almost instantly, though when in human form, they often retain some mark of characteristic of their true animal nature.
2001, Laurence C. Bush, Asian Horror Encyclopedia: Asian Horror Culture in Literature, Manga and Folklore, Writers Club Press, page 692013-10-12, Jasin Zujovic, Hengeyokai level adjustment, rec.games.frp.dnd I've been watching Inuyasha yesterday (too bad that's a German dub and I can understand almost nothing) and that got me wanting to make myself a hengeyokai character... and then I remembered the level adjustment.
Origin
- Japanese変化妖怪
- Englishhengeyokai
From Japanese 変化妖怪.
More words from Japanese
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hengeyokai. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hengeyokai
“hengeyokai.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hengeyokai. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hengeyokai,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hengeyokai.
Source: hengeyokai on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.