Any Pegasus Zombie if they tried to fly would flop around like a retarded fish, flight requires motor skill and brain power to accomplish. Similarly, Unicorns wouldn’t be able to cast spells because it requires mental focus, something a zombie doesn’t have.

@Twifan  
Actually, if it’s the classic one, they can’t use any weapons at all. They might try to pull yours away, but that’s the jist of it.
 
And for my own opinion, no. They can’t cast spells. My head cannon goes with the classic zombies: not even pegasi can fly.

I dunno where I was going with that.

@Prof.NightJack  
When my Mom had her nervous breakdowns, all she did was stare into space. And occasionally start screaming and raving, would lash out at us, and try to run out the door.  
She was, essentially, a zombie of the “Crazies” type.  
True story.

@HamburgerTime  
Well what you call “the undead” type are the only ones I really call “zombies”, the others I never call them zombies.

(Sorry, I had to go do chores. Ain’t that a bitch? I’m 19 years old, I have 3 part time jobs, I’m taking online college courses, and I STILL have to do chores.)
 
Anyway, “The Undead” are the classic Romero zombies, and easily the most popular. Their defining characteristics are that they’ve died and come back, they’re tend to be slow moving, they eat the flesh of those they kill, and you have to destroy their brain.
 
“The Infected” are a more recent catagory, and my personal favorite. They tend to be technically alive, infected with a pathogen of some kind, are usually rather fast moving, and ever so slightly smarter then the Undead, but only if you’re really looking. They don’t always eat the people they kill, and therefor capable of starving. And of course, you don’t have to destroy or sever the brain.
 
The last one, “The Crazies”, are probably the most realistic, but my least favorite. The main difference between the other two is intelligence. They are MUCH smarter then other zombies, and sometimes even hard to define as a zombie. Think Crossed, Steven King’s “Cell”, and RE4 and 5. They are also usually living, are capable of planning and setting traps, and (possibly most importantly) often use tools and weapons.
 
They can be very different from each other, but I consider them all part of “zombie” fiction.

Now what I’m saying isnt that all zombies are the same. There are clearly defined catagories. I’ve noticed three. Let’s call them; “The Undead”, “The Infected”, and “The Crazies”.

@Prof.NightJack  
That’s not to say I don’t like (good) vampire and werewolf type stories, though. It’s just that zombies are my shit.

*modern

@HamburgerTime  
Well to each his own, me I like sci-fi and fantasy alot but don’t really care for the moder settings without a lot of them in it, it’s why I like the other undead more as they are based on myths, legends, and superstition that have a more mystical aspect to them.  
But I do like Shaun of the Dead, I can find more enjoyment from zombie comedies then other things.

@Prof.NightJack  
I couldn’t disagree more. My all time favorite movies are Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later. One of my all time favorite books is World War Z. I’m a HUGE zombie fan.
 
To better illiterate, I define a zombie as someone who is in a mindless or trance-like state.

@HamburgerTime  
TO be far, I’m not even a big fan of a lot of zombie/whatever, I prefer undead the likes of vampire(the good one), skeletons, mummies, and so on.  
Zombies and infected are the lowest on my list, it’s why I really don’t like how they overshadow so many of the others now.

@Prof.NightJack  
Alright, fair enough. But then that means that the Zombies of Zombieland aren’t zombies. (Wow, three times in one sentence.) But, I see I’m not gonna change your mind, so I see we’ve reached an impasse.

@HamburgerTime  
This is what I meant…  
But I will give The Last Of Us more then the others as the fungus is like a real life thing.

@HamburgerTime  
sigh Fine then, if they can still die by means other then shoot the head and/or mindless(and you know what i mean but that) then I don’t count them as a zombie…..

@Prof.NightJack  
But, if you wanna be a purist, and go strictly by the original George Romero Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead zombie, then no, the antagonists of 28 Days/ Weeks Later, The Left 4 Dead series, Zombieland, The Last Of Us, and “The Enemy” Series, are not zombies.  
But I’m not a purist. I feel that it’s closeminded to say that.

@Prof.NightJack  
If you got attacked by an Infected, you wouldn’t say, “Oh my god, I was just attacked by an infected!” You’d say, “Oh my god, I was usury attacked by a friggin’ zombie”!
 
And they’re almost never called zombies. They usually have some alternative name for them, such as “Walkers”, “Roamers”, “Corpses”, “The Undead”, Geeks”, “Ghouls”, “Those Things”, “Those Fucked Up People”, “Crazies”, or, “The Infected”.  
Whether or not they died before turning is a detail, rather then a defining catorization.
 
Technically, your classic Romero “zombies” aren’t zombies either. The original “zombie” was more like a golem, a person that was brought back from the dead using voodoo magic to serve for eternity as a slave.  
The term “zombie” isn’t a specific thing anymore. It’s more of a adjective then a noun, if anything.

@HamburgerTime  
AND they also can starve to dead, that makes them not zombies.

@HamburgerTime  
They don’t even show any decay, at lest other movies with infected trying to be passed off as zombies make them look a little decayed, heck they are even called the infected IN it.

Saying that the 28 Days Later “infected” aren’t zombies is like saying the vampires in 30 Days of Night aren’t vampires simply because it’s a different interpretation then Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  
They’re fucking zombies.

@Sjogre  
I used to not be, back when I was younger and there where far less things with zombies in them, not they they are EVERYWHERE, I don’t like the ones that only come about from being infected by a virus that turns others into more of them so easily.

@Prof.NightJack  
You are oddly particular about your zombies.
 
Most people just care about whether they’re fast, slow, or vulnerable to headshots.

@Sjogre  
Maybe, but most are not zombies anymore, it’s more the Hollywood types now that are even smart and “zombify” when still alive, and that’s really the infected.  
Now if they become a zombie without being dead first then they sould be dying in some way, so it shows them becoming a zombie from dying as well.

@PonyPon  
Then I base it on how they act and how soon they rise.  
If they to soon after death(as in dead then up) then it’s the infected, if some time goes by then it’s a zombie.  
If it acts more basic, like a shambler(but can been a little faster but not much in “smarts”), then it’s a zombie, if not the infected.  
Also mutation plays a part too, zombie do not do that.