Alcithoe lutea is a species of large deepwater sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Volutidae, the volutes.

(Original description) The shell is fusiform, robust, pale buff with a high, blunt spire.

It features a relatively large aperture, a slightly reverted outer lip, and four teeth on the columella.

The spire is high and slightly irregularly bent, subscalar with a blunt, mamillary, and with an impressed apex.

It is bluntly pointed above, ending in a broad, shallow, slightly emarginated canal with a minute border at the base.