Kyphosus bigibbus has an oval shaped body which is laterally compressed with a small head, a pointed snout and a slightly bulging forehead.

[2] The teeth are fixed and incisiform with their bases positioned horizontally in mouth, they have rounded crowns and have a curved, J shape.

[2] The colour varies from uniform grey to brownish, silvery ventrally, bronze to greenish tint dorsally.

The dorsal and anal fins are frequently dark with black margins on their soft-rayed parts.

In the western Indian Ocean it occurs as far north is the Red Sea and from the Gulf of Aden off Somalia south to Madagascar, Réunion.

In the western pacific it is found off southern Japan, Korea, and China as far south as Taiwan, but it is absent from equatorial areas.

In the western Atlantic it has been observed off Bermuda, Grand Cayman Island, Belize, and San Blas, Panama.