face down

adjective or adverb

variants or less commonly face-down

ˌfās-ˈdau̇n 

or facedown

: with the face down

He was face down on the bed. = He was lying face down on the bed.

Two cards are dealt face down to each player, then the first round of bets is made.

—Thomas L. Clark

… she walked past us to the lab area, placed the paper face down on the table and looked back at us.

—David Kwiatkowski

… stood up so fast he knocked his plate of waffles facedown onto the floor.

—Ingrid Law

—usually hyphenated before a noun

… an alternate paper path has been added to turn out face-down copies in proper order, so they don't have to be collated manually.

—William J. Lynott

Examples of face down in a Sentence

The cards were dealt facedown.

He fell facedown in the sand.

Recent Examples on the Web

The Packers wide receiver went down quickly and was face down on the turf and writhing in pain. — ABC News, 20 Sep. 2026

At one point, she could be seen lying across the hood of the car and flipping over to face down before laughing and getting up to stand on the vehicle. — Bailey Richards, PEOPLE, 20 Sep. 2026

An autopsy revealed Manzano died lying face down on a pillow, unable to breathe after ingesting a combination of alcohol and the depressant Xanax. — CBS News, 18 Sep. 2026

Measles rash may come next – flat red spots can spread from the face down. — Eva Flowe august 31, Charlotte Observer, 31 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for face down

• chinatown
• tumbledown
• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown

Kids Definition

facedown

adverb

face·​down ˈfās-ˈdau̇n 

: with the face down

floated facedown