Is a 5-foot step in Pathfinder essentially the same as a Shift movement in D&D 4th edition? I believe that neither movements provoke an attack of opportunity so they sound like the same thing with a different name.
From "Take 5-Foot Step", Combat, PFSRD:
You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement. Taking this 5-foot step never provokes an attack of opportunity. You can't take more than one 5-foot step in a round, and you can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance.
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Pathfinder's (and 3.5's) "5-foot step" move action is almost the same as 4e's "shift" move action. Both let you move one (5-foot) square without provoking any OA/AoO attacks.
Note that there are 2 differences: in 4e, shifting can be one half of a double move, but in 3.5/Pathfinder it cannot, since in 3.5/Pathfinder you can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance (other than the 5-foot step). The other difference is that in 3.5/Pathfinder, taking a 5-foot doesn't use up your move action for the round (or any other actions for that matter), so you can still use it for non-movement purposes (such as a full-attack).