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

She was found lying naked and face down, and suffered 17 stab wounds, and had defensive wounds on her hands. —Amy Lavalley, Chicago Tribune, 30 Aug. 2025

Keesler did not drop the weapon, prompting Olson to fire his handgun three times at Keesler, who fell face down on the floor, just in front of his father, with the knife still in his right hand, according to the DA’s office. —Harry Harris, Mercury News, 30 Aug. 2025

Her head rolled into her lap, face down. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 27 Aug. 2025

One exercise instructed participants to lie face down and lift their feet off the ground. —Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2025

Then, with all your plates turned face down/hanger side up, lay the aluminum foil over top of them and begin pressing in an outline of the plates and the hanging rings. —Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 10 Aug. 2025

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