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

Sierra turned to Daniela, who was sleeping face down on her bed. — Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 19 Oct. 2026

According to police, one of the suspects held a security guard at gunpoint, forced the guard to turn over his weapon and ordered him to face down on the ground before the group forced entry into the building. — Karma Sabbah, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026

Several bend down on their knees, then prostrate themselves face down on the ground. — Ilan Ben Zion, Christian Science Monitor, 14 Oct. 2026

On the real robot, the team demonstrated walking, following a person with the camera and standing up from lying face down. — New Atlas, 13 Oct. 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