A whelk is a sea snail with a hard, pointed, spiral shell, living on the sea floor, and it is eaten as food in many places. It is a real snail, not a clam: one shell, twisted round like a soft-ice-cream cone, usually a few centimetres long, though some kinds are bigger. The meat inside is firm and chewy — people boil them and pull the meat out with a toothpick or a pin. In Britain, whelks are old seaside food, sold in paper cups with vinegar at the beach, and to many British people the word sounds working-class and old-fashioned. In Taiwan, Korea and Japan, whelks and their close relatives are ordinary shellfish you meet at the 熱炒 table or in Korean 골뱅이 salad. In English, whelk is a fairly narrow word — most people know it only if they eat them or live by the sea, and many will just say sea snail. Note that shop and menu English is loose here: several different sea snails get called whelk, and a related creature, the conch, has a bigger shell and is a different word.

海螺、蛾螺（可食用的螺類）。台灣熱炒店的螺肉、韓式涼拌螺肉（골뱅이）就是這一類。要小心：中文的「螺」範圍很大，田螺、蝸牛都叫螺，但 whelk 專指海裡的、殼呈螺旋尖塔狀、可以吃的那種；陸上的蝸牛是 snail，大型的海螺殼（可以拿來吹的那種）是 conch。