Shells small to large, imperforate, very variable in shape, colour and sculpture, often with a deep suture and a flaring lip – a tool used as a wedge to open Bivalves, and then often chipped.
 

Shell medium-sized, with convex whorls and a marked suture. The sculpture is variable, from smooth to spirally predominant, to longitudinally costated. The body whorl is always longer than the spire; the aperture is large, the lip often flaring; in some species a ancient labial varix can occur; posterior notch minute; anterior siphonal canal small, open; columella curved, with a columellar callus not much expanded outside the mouth. Operculum with (sub)central nucleus.
 

Shell small to medium-sized, fusiform, usually thick-walled (Euthria cumulata excepted), with convex whorls. Apart from the growth marks, the radial sculpture varies from smooth to costated (adeles), and the spiral sculpture from smooth to striated (aracanensis); the costae, when they exist, are never as numerous as the striae; sometimes, presence of a subsutural bead. Aperture broadly ovate in its posterior part, with a marked subsutural siphonal notch; anteriorly it is angular, slowly merging with the canal; that one is short to moderately long and bent backwards, open; labial margin serrated inside; columellar margin smooth; no callus.
 

Shell large, fusiform, with convex whorls and a marked suture; body whorl large and inflated. Sculpture variable within the species; the whorls are often round and smooth but can bear a carina (Neptunea middendorffiana), or are adorned with strong spiral cords (lyrata-group), axial folds (ventricosa), spiral ribs (amianta)… Occasionally, pressence of labial varices. Aperture large, subovate, with a small posterior siphonal notch; labial margin smooth inside, merging anteriorly into a short, widely open, siphonal canal; columella smooth; no callus.