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 man laid face down for about 40 seconds before officers approached him, handcuffed him and then flipped him over to provide CPR. — Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 13 Aug. 2026

HiLight is designed to give you context on incoming calls when your phone is face down. — Kimberly Gedeon, PC Magazine, 13 Aug. 2026

The Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL also gets HiLight, colored LEDs around the camera flash that can alert you to things, like calls when your phone is face down or when Gemini is activated. — Sheena Vasani, The Verge, 12 Aug. 2026

Video footage shows my mother face down at the scene, with my father sitting beside her with his head in his hands. — Rachel Sales, New York Daily News, 6 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