Shells small to medium, whorls broadly and flatly canaliculate, turreted, strongly contracted at base, finely ribbed and transversely striated, sutures deeply impressed; aperture trigonal and oblique; umbilicus small or large and deep; body-whorl oblique; protoconch 1,5 to 2 smooth, shining whorls, regular or deviated.
Owing to the similarity in features of many species usually divided between the subgenera Trigonostoma, Scalptia and Trigonaphera, and to avoid making arbitrary decisions, the genus Trigonostoma, s.l. has been used to contain all species in this group.