Length, 34 mm; diameter, 22 mm. Shell: globose; smooth; mottled gray and white. Spire: blunt; three whorls. Sculpture: microscopic growth lines. Aperture: lunate; outer lip thin and sharp, with numerous fine teeth; inner lip with four or five teeth; septum thick, convex, smooth. Operculum: calcareous, surface smooth except for a margin of transverse ridges; apophysis a flat flange; ivory. Color: gray or black, variously mottled, banded, or with flamelike markings of darker gray or red.
These mollusks live beneath the surface of the sand among boulders at the high-tide line; seldom seen during the day, the snails emerge at night, plowing through the sand and crawling up the algal covered rocks on which they feed.
Known as kupe'e by the Hawaiians, shells of N. polita were prized as items of adornment and the animals were used as food. Drilled and made into bracelets and necklaces, the kupe'e was an emblem of mourning for the ali’i, or chiefs.
N. polita is a well-known species throughout the Indo-West Pacific.