The shell reaches a moderately large size for the subfamily and is broadly fusiform. The high spire consists of an unexceptional protoconch and a teloconch of an unusually small number of whorls (about four). The large, roughly ovate aperture has a thin, erect, nondenticulate outer lip with weak crenulation or none at all, and an adherent, smooth columellar lip. A short anal siphonal tube is located approximately midway in each intervarical space. The siphonal canal is short and open (this being unique in the Typhinae). The body whorl, as also in Pterotyphis and Tripterotyphis, bears three varices, the varices in Cinclidotyphis much less well-developed and lacking posterior points on the rounded shouldermargin site. A finely scabrous surface is produced by the development of fine scales at the intersections of the multitude of fine spiral threads and the equally numerous fine axial-growth lamellae.