Domaine de Versailles - les jardins du château de Versailles

Conch (pron.: /ˈkɒŋk/ or /ˈkɒntʃ/) is a common name that is applied to a number of different medium to large-sized sea snails or their shells. The term generally applies to large sea snails whose shell has a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a point at both ends).

Conch, or conque, is a musical instrument, a wind instrument that is made from a seashell, the shell of one of several different kinds of very large sea snail. These instruments are sometimes referred to as "shell trumpets".

The shells of large marine gastropods are prepared by cutting a hole in the spire of the shell near the apex, and then blowing into the shell as if it were a trumpet, as in blowing horn. Sometimes a mouthpiece is used, but some shell trumpets are blown without one.

Various species of large marine gastropod shells can be turned into "blowing shells", but some of the best-known species are: the sacred chank or shankha Turbinella pyrum, the "Triton's trumpet" Charonia tritonis, and the Queen Conch Strombus gigas.