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 fight that ensued, according to the police probable cause statement, ended with Wells, the married father of four children, being shot at close range and dying in the middle of the street, lying face down, with five bullet holes in the front of his body and eight in his back. —Eric Adler, Kansas City Star, 21 Jan. 2026

The deaths of inmates and other detainees after officers hold them face down and put pressure on their backs and necks to restrain them have been a problem in law enforcement for decades. —Michael Biesecker, Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2026

Jurors also looked at photographs of the scene, including Rogers’ body, bloody and lying face down in the brush a few feet from his bike. —Shira Moolten, Sun Sentinel, 15 Jan. 2026

Toney was found face down with two 9 mm shell casings near his body when officers responded to the scene. —Tom Olsen, Twin Cities, 14 Jan. 2026

Inside the home, officers found the 40-year-old victim lying face down on the floor and suffering from a stab wound to her back, police said. —Joseph Buczek, CBS News, 14 Jan. 2026

Another video shows a DoorDash driver in Portland, Oregon, screaming for air as four officers pin him face down in the street. —Nicole Foy, ProPublica, 13 Jan. 2026

Authorities said another kayaker found Rajaniemi face down in the water Friday morning with his kayak upside-down near the head of the Bodega Bay channel. —Sacbee.com, 13 Jan. 2026

Pike was later found shot to death, naked and face down in a ravine in a windsurfing area known as Sewer Beach on Virginia Key. —Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 10 Jan. 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