Slug is a common word, normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell, in contrast to snails, which are gastropods with coiled shells that are big enough to retract into. All slugs are descended from snails that gradually lost or reduced their shells over time. This shell-less condition has arisen many times in the evolutionary past, so the various taxonomic families of slugs are polyphyletic: they are not closely related, despite a superficial similarity in the overall body form. There are marine and terrestrial forms, but the common name "slug" is most frequently applied to air-breathing land species, while the marine forms are known as sea slugs. Land gastropods with a shell that is not quite vestigial, but is too small to retract into (like many in the family Urocyclidae), are known as semislugs.

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